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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28208526">To Heed the Call</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>the old gods have retired; chosen enter stage left [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gods &amp; Goddesses, Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Dad!Schlatt-mentioned briefly, Gen, Hybrids, Implied/Referenced Disfigurement, Major Character Injury, Memory Loss, Multiple Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), OOC characters, Possession, Protective Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Sleepy Bois Inc as Royalty, Temporary Amnesia, Twins Wilbur Soot &amp; Technoblade, Wilbur Soot Lives, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, admin!dream, no beta we die like george in manhunt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:28:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>23,861</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28208526</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dream was young he was Chosen by the End Goddess, and he understood she would always protect him. But when he unintentionally angers her, he might realize he should appreciate a Goddess' protection. Now alone and tired of fighting, Dream is in a vulnerable position, one his former protector can take advantage of.</p>
<p>-<br/>"To be Chosen is to be cursed."</p>
<p>"To be Called is to be freed."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clay | Dream &amp; GeorgeNotFound &amp; Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF) &amp; Everyone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>the old gods have retired; chosen enter stage left [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152170</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>390</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. I. To Be Chosen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone! I'm relatively new to the fandom but I thought I would give this a shot. Please don't intentionally share this with the CC's or share this on any other sites. If any of the CC's express any discomfort with this fic it will be taken down immediately. Also, I think it's pretty clear but I just want to clarify that the characters in the story are based on their RP characters and not the people themselves, although it diverges from the RP canon pretty heavily.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the beginning, the Gods created the first worlds. They created them for people to come and have fun together. To survive and create their own masterpieces. Hypixel became a community server while people anxiously put in requests for new worlds from the Gods.</p><p>
  <em>Desert Temple within 50 blocks of spawn, plains village northeast from Desert Temple… </em>
</p><p>The requests became too specific and too time-consuming for the Gods to manage themselves. And so they began to bless children and called them their Chosen. They had other names, ranging from Admins to Minor Gods, but they all meant the same thing.</p><p>They could make worlds.</p><p>Dream had known from a young age that he was special, the Eye of Ender that was tattooed to his wrist was as much an indication of that as the fangs in his mouth and the dragon wings sprouted from his back. People came from all over the small village to see him, the End’s Chosen, this admittedly small boy with green eyes that begged for adventure and escape from the prying eyes of others.</p><p>The Gods themselves had practically retired when they created the Chosen. They tinkered with new ideas to improve their worlds and keep the people entertained, but they no longer had the heavy lifting of world-creating.</p><p>When Dream was a teenager the Gods added shipwrecks, Dream took off with the hopes he would find a sunken one untouched. If he could bring home a few gold bars then they could get extra steak and Dream wouldn’t have to split his piece with Drista.</p><p>Drista, who had been Chosen too, by the most well-known God in existence, Notch. She didn’t flaunt the Chosen Enhancements brought out by Notch, with good reason too. The golden hair and angel wings she draped behind her only made the elders in their village weep, believing the angel of death had finally come for them.</p><p>Dream found a shipwreck easily enough, half-sunk of the coast of a beach nearly 200 blocks from his village. His wings had made the journey go by fast and he nearly crashed into the ocean in his haste to stop flying once it was spotted.</p><p>“Hey, buddy! I already found this one, get your own ship,” a voice called out from the helm of the ship and Dream looked up to observe a boy around his age. He wore a white tee with a flame on it and a black turtleneck underneath it. His bangs were drooping in his eyes and Dream almost smirked at the idea of the kid not being able to see with his hair that long.</p><p>“Sorry, didn’t realize anyone else was here. Mind if I just check it out,” he pointed back in the direction of the village with his thumb. “My village isn’t exactly near water so this is probably the only time I’ll get to see one for a while.”</p><p>The boy seemed to consider something before tossing a rope ladder over the side. “I’ve already looted the chests so don’t think of trying any funny business.”</p><p>Dream looked at the ladder for a moment and wondered if the boy had even noticed his wings. He shrugged and started climbing anyway. “I’m Dream, what’s your name?”</p><p>“Sapnap,” the boy replied curtly as Dream vaulted over the side of the ship onto the deck.</p><p>“That’s a weird name.”</p><p>Sapnap scrunched up his nose, “So is Dream, but it’s a nickname that I go by.”</p><p>“Oh, same actually, my parents named me and my siblings after blocks, but we all took on our nicknames the moment we were old enough to realize how embarrassing that was.” Sapnap broke out into a smile grin and Dream lit up with the accomplishment.</p><p>“That is pretty embarrassing, dude. I just started going by my nickname after signing up for the Junior Hunter Tournaments,” he gestured to the flame symbol on his chest, “It’s a big deal in my family to join as early as possible and there were too many people with the same name as me.”</p><p>“JHT, huh? That’s pretty impressive, not enough kids in my village signed up so we had to bail out of the competition this year.”</p><p>“That sucks, apparently we’re supposed to learn to make Nether portals and learn how to take down blazes this year,” Dream let out a low whistle at the thought.</p><p>“Teenagers in the Nether, Gods save us,” they both laughed at that and Sapnap gestured to the wings on Dream’s back.</p><p>“They have a group of the king’s hunters going after the dragon right now, how’s your Goddess handling that information?” Well, that answered Dream’s question from earlier.</p><p>The thing about the Chosen was that they had to communicate the people’s wishes to the Gods and vice versa. So, they were this ever-present figure that never truly left their Chosen in peace.</p><p>Dream remembers being young and wanting nothing more than to feel alone, to know that his Goddess would be there if he needed her but otherwise he wanted to be alone.</p><p>“She’s not happy, obviously. But she also knows ‘the greed of man’ and knew that her dragons would eventually become another conquest,” the Goddess seemed to ‘tsk’ in his head, in confirmation or denial he wasn’t sure.</p><p>“I don’t want to be a king’s hunter, even if I’m in JHT. The king’s too greedy for his own good, he’ll run our villages to the ground just to keep an iron bar in his inventory.”</p><p>“So, come join my world,” Sapnap turned to look at him, “I haven’t made one yet, I was waiting until I was sixteen but when I do you can be whitelisted on there, so you won’t have to worry about not being able to not get in.”</p><p>“Dude, you met me like twenty minutes ago and now you’re inviting me to your future world. What if I turn into a criminal in the next couple of years?” Dream smirked at him.</p><p>“Then I guess I’ll just have to commission a prison on the new world so you can serve your sentence in style.”</p><p>-</p><p>The shipwreck became their meeting spot for the next year, a mutual point between their villages that they could get to once a week for updates from each other. With Sapnap living closer to the castle he always brought news of the failed Ender Dragon hunting parties.</p><p>“They still haven’t found the stronghold,” Sapnap called out in greeting as he hoisted himself over the side of the ship. Dream tossed him an apple and hummed in acknowledgment of the statement.</p><p>“Pity, I thought this group recruited a tracker from the Northern kingdom?” Sapnap discarded the apple core into the ocean and took a seat across from Dream on deck.</p><p>“Oh, they did. But the tracker refused to actually do anything once he found out he wasn’t getting paid the same as the rest of the group,” he shifted with a slightly feral grin like he had been saving the best part for last. “Turns out the tracker was the Sleepy Kingdom’s crown prince, they thought they wouldn’t have to pay him as much since he’s already sitting in the lap of luxury.”</p><p>“Aren’t the princes a little young? Last I heard the twins hadn’t even been presented to find brides.” Sapnap nodded in agreement.</p><p>“Yeah, they brought the elder of the twins, Technoblade. I think he’s a year or so older than you.” A year older than Dream, that would make him roughly fifteen or sixteen. “But he is Nether Chosen so his fighting skills are pretty much unmatched.”</p><p>“Imagine a duel between me and him,” Dream grinned and stood up in front of Sapnap, holding a fake sword at him. “The Chosen of the Other Realms, they’d talk about it for years.” Dream did a spin and lashed the sword out to the side before flopping back on the deck dramatically.</p><p>“You should send him an invitation to your world when you make it, let him build a vacation home there so people like the king can’t bug him constantly.” Dream’s fangs glinted in the sun while he nodded at Sapnap.</p><p>“I’ll invite the whole family, make a name for myself.”</p><p>-</p><p>“You can’t do this!” He growled at the nearest guard, watching in satisfaction as they backed away slightly.</p><p>“Just tell us where to find the dragon and we can let you go. I’ll reward your family for your cooperation,” the king said as Dream was dragged closer to the throne, to him.</p><p>“And why the hell would I tell you?” He chuckled, trying to come off as manic as possible to keep the guards from him. The king raised an eyebrow before looking off to the side and nodding.</p><p>“Do you think I don’t know what goes on in my kingdom, boy? I have no use for a blacksmith’s son but I know how you End Chosen get over what you deem yours.” Sapnap’s limp form was dragged in by two guards and thrown without care to the ground a few feet from Dream. A cold feeling spread through him as the End Goddess whispered in his mind that they had stolen what was Dream’s, he had to <em>protect</em> him.</p><p>The king cleared his throat and Dream turned from Sapnap to him with a growl low in his chest. “So, truly this should be a simple choice. Give me the location of the stronghold so I may send troops to kill the dragon or,” he waved his hand dismissively and Dream watched as a guard raised an axe above Sapnap, “he dies.”</p><p>What was he supposed to do? Protect the Goddess’ sacred creation or protect what was his? The choice made him feel hazy, he wasn’t even sure he was still in the throne room. <em>Dream, you must protect what is yours when you can. </em>But when the dragon is also his in a sense what did he choose? <em>You choose your treasure. </em></p><p>“I’ll take you to it, just don’t hurt him.” The king smiled this cruel, greed-filled smile and nodded at Dream.</p><p>“We’ll take him with us, just to give you an incentive not to pull any tricks. When we reach the stronghold you’re both free to go.” Dream nodded in understanding and was finally released from the guard’s grip keeping him on the floor.</p><p>The trip was long, with the king insisting on riding in a horse-drawn carriage and Sapnap being thrown over the back of a horse still unconscious. Dream could feel the pull of the End Portal, a gentle call of <em>home</em> that made him want to spin circles in the air. He refrained because of the circumstances that brought him here.</p><p>He did fly above the rest of them though, his very being a better tracker than any Eye of Ender. An archer was trained on him from one of the horses in front of the king. He wasn’t sure if they were worried he would run or if they thought he would try to nose dive into the king’s carriage and take him out. He debated the second option the entire trip.</p><p>His wings took him to an island in the middle of the ocean, barely 40 blocks in total. It was no wonder no one had found it in the years they had searched. Dream looked the captain of the guard in the face as he pointed straight down and told him to start digging.</p><p>He didn’t help as the guards tore up the island and constructed ladders to climb down to the depths of the Earth. Only when they were standing on top of the stronghold did he stop them, climbing down himself and breaking the ancient structure with a stone pickaxe.</p><p>He led them through the twists and turns of the stronghold, the stairs the led to nowhere didn’t fool him, and the prisons meant to trap people who wandered in didn’t either. Dream led the group with a determined stride, determined to save Sapnap, determined to leave the king’s presence, <em>determined, determined, determined. </em></p><p>He heard the portal before they did, could hear the whispers from the Eyes already laid in the frames that questioned why he did it, why had he betrayed them. The Eyes the guards had brought with them whispered back about <em>hoards</em> and <em>no choice</em> and Dream silently thanked them.</p><p>“All right, I’ve brought you here. You can bring the dragon’s head back and mount it on your wall for all I care. Can we leave?” Dream made a move for the entrance of the portal room and huffed in frustration at the guards blocking the way.</p><p>“I held up my end of the deal, I expect you to do the same.” The king looked at him with these bored eyes as the sound of portal frames filling up were behind him.</p><p>“And I am keeping all of my promises. You’re both free to go, we haven’t harmed him…” he trailed off as the sound behind Dream stopped, the void did not fill its place, however. “But it seems we’ve come short on supplies, and I never promised to not harm you.”</p><p>The guards were on Dream all at once, pushing him to the ground and digging sharp knees into his wings to pin him. He cried out at the initial impact before finding a moment of stability in his mind and grasping it hard.</p><p>“From what I know about Chosen, and I’ll admit, it isn’t too much, but you can act as good substitutes for other items. Prince Technoblade visited a few years ago, he was lucky he was royalty and a Piglin rather than a Blaze Enhanced, I could have used some blaze rods at the time.”</p><p>The words registered in Dream’s ears a few moments too late as his face was smashed into the ground of the portal room. He heard a crack from somewhere, his nose or cheekbone, maybe even his jaw. He was going to die here, the king wouldn’t keep his promise being he was a horrible man. They’d kill Sapnap too just to hide the evidence and they’d tell their families it was an accident on the boat.</p><p><em>Dream, you don’t have to be here, you don’t have to feel this. I’ll bring you back when it’s safe. </em>He let go.</p><p>-</p><p>Dream didn’t know how long he floated in the void, in the space between life and death. The End Goddess stayed in there with him while he floated. Her hair was silver like the moon and her cheeks were dusted with starlight. Her eyes were empty as the void and she hummed a tune for him to fill the silence.</p><p><em>“You will be all right, Dream. You have a strong will to live, courtesy of me.” </em>She had the same fangs as her Chosen but the wings were a gift she only blessed her dragons and Chosen with, she didn’t have any herself.</p><p>“What if I don’t want to live after what they’ve done?” He turned to her unblinking, empty eyes. Her lips turned down in a small frown as she reached out to hold his branded wrist.</p><p><em>“We must overcome the struggles of life to understand our true purpose.” </em>Her fingers disappeared against his cheek, he tried to hold on for just a moment longer, unwilling to return to a world filled with pain and agony and misery.</p><p>When he blinked again he was in his house, his eldest sister sat by his bedside reading a book which was abruptly closed as his eyes—<em>eye</em>—opened.</p><p>“Dream, don’t try and sit—and you’re sitting up. Mom, Dream’s awake!” There was a flurry of footsteps outside the door as four new people crowded the doorway of the room.</p><p>Dream observed his mom and siblings before landing on the last person hanging back in the door. “Nick! You’re all right!” His inner dragon leaped at the sight of his friend relatively unharmed.</p><p>“No thanks to your heroics,” he marched forward into the room ignoring the way Dream preened at the sight of him. “What the hell were you thinking? Leading them to the End, letting them kill the dragon?” He stopped a few feet from the bed but that wasn’t good enough for Dream who latched onto his wrist and dragged him into the bed to hug him tightly.</p><p>“They would have killed you otherwise, I couldn’t just watch you die.” Sapnap clung to him with the same amount of force Dream did to him and he pretended not to notice the shaky breaths the younger took in response.</p><p>“They took your eye, they took your wings. You can’t fly anymore, Dream and it’s my fault.” He shushed the younger and held him by the shoulders so he had to look him in the eye.</p><p>“None of this is your fault, I should have made our world the moment I turned sixteen but I hesitated. I don’t need my wings to be a Chosen, and I don’t need to ever fly again if it means you’re still alive.”</p><p>A soft, broken sound tumbled from Sapnap’s mouth as he sobbed against Dream’s chest. Dream’s family knew about Sapnap, he wasn’t Dream’s secret or anything. Dragons loved to boast about their hoards and that meant his family knew virtually everything about the young noiret in his arms.</p><p>Dream could only imagine when they first arrived at the house, he wondered if the guards had brought them or if they had left them somewhere and Sapnap had dragged him back to the village himself. He didn’t like either of those ideas.</p><p>“I could make the world today, we could leave right now, go somewhere the king can never touch us again,” Sapnap looked up at him with a hesitant gaze but a small smile on his face.</p><p>“Let’s do it.”</p><p>-</p><p>Dream stood in a plains biome roughly 100 blocks from his home village. Sapnap had traveled back to his village in the time Dream was unconscious and gathered his things, having no plans to return to the village resting outside the gates of the castle. Dream’s family had traveled with him, all with parting gifts even though he told them they were welcome to his world at any time.</p><p>His eldest sister, Rem, gifted him a diamond axe and a blank name tag to call it whatever he wished. Drista gave him some enchanted golden apples, Notch apples, as she was never in short supply of them. His brother, Dusk, gave him a white porcelain mask with an inky black smiley face drawn on it. His mother gave him enchanted books she had collected over the years and a trident.</p><p>Creating new worlds were the core function of being Chosen, the reason the Gods had created them in the first place. Breaking apart a small seam in the world and looking into the void that laid beyond them. Sapnap would stay until he could cross into the formed world, but Dream walked into the seam right into the stars and began to create.</p><p>He didn’t have specifics in mind when he placed the biomes, practically throwing them in random directions to form the landscape around him. He thought of <em>safety</em> and <em>comfort</em> and allowed his powers to mold the world.</p><p>He felt when it was complete, this feeling of finality that Chosen said was a sign of a completed world. He looked back to the seam separating the worlds and beckoned Sapnap in with a bright grin. His family waved their goodbyes as he sealed the seam and left Sapnap and him to their new world.</p><p>They searched the surrounding area of spawn and Sapnap cheered when he found a dark oak forest. “What if we found totems of undying? We could go back and really show the king who’s boss.” Dream rolled his eyes and scoffed.</p><p>“As much as I enjoy the idea of slaughtering the king we should give it a few years, see if he has a heart attack first,” the dark grin on Dream’s face implied any scenario with the king dead was one to celebrate.</p><p>“For now, however, I want to make sure no one will ever be able to get the jump on us again. Without my wings,” Sapnap winced at that but Dream continued, “I’m going to have to learn all the tricks I can to outwit the king’s guard.”</p><p>“I can pretend to be a hunter? It would give us both the opportunity to try and outwit each other and get better.” Dream raised an eyebrow and seemed to ponder it for a moment before a smile broke across his face.</p><p>“What a great idea! You hunt me before I make it to the End and kill the dragon, you kill me first and you win, I kill the dragon and I win.” Sapnap nodded along before the words caught up and he made a sound of protest.</p><p>“Won’t killing all those dragons anger your Goddess?” Dream hummed and turned back to Sapnap with the smile still on his face.</p><p>“She once told me to protect what’s mine over hers. If killing her dragons means I can protect what’s mine then I’m fulfilling her wishes. And it just gives you some motivation to keep getting better and stop me from killing them.”</p><p>They decided not to battle the dragon of their brand new world, opting to wait for Dream’s energy to replenish so he could make another one. In preparation for the hunt, they decided to take a trip to Hypixel, to pick up some supplies for their current world and also to see if Dream found any interesting codes he wished to test out in the next one.</p><p>Hypixel was bustling with people as it was one of the main worlds, a community world made by the Gods to hold the people with no permanent world to settle in. Dream had adorned the white mask given by Dusk before departing for the hub world in an attempt to curb some of the stares he knew he’d get if they saw where his eye once was. People still looked at him, but the people of Hypixel were eccentric and no one’s gaze stayed on him for too long to be a true concern.</p><p>Sapnap browsed the food section of the market, practically drooling at the cakes laid out in front of him. Dream bought a slice for him as they continued through the market. When they reached the armor shop Dream debated going in before he saw a white bandana in the window, an out of place item truly, but he bought in nonetheless.</p><p>“Look at what I found, now you can finally get those bangs out of your face while you hunt me!” Dream waved the bandana in Sapnap’s face and playfully kept it out of the younger’s grasp for a few moments before relinquishing the piece of fabric to him.</p><p>“Thanks, dude! This’ll work really well.” He pulled the fabric over his head and adjusted it over his forehead, effectively trapping his bangs out of his face.</p><p>“Let’s head over to the Code Center and see what they have over there.”</p><p>The first sight at Code Center being a short British man scream at an admittedly bored-looking attendant was amusing, to say the least.</p><p>“Are you deaf? God, you must be deaf for as many times as I’ve had to repeat myself. I <em>cannot </em>perform the weekly update because the update code is in red and I can’t <em>see </em>red!” The attendant blinked at the man and the Brit flushed a deeper red at the lack of response. “So, you’ll have to go do your job and find someone else to do it, and take me off the roster so this won’t happen again.”</p><p>The attendant looked at him for a moment longer before blinking. “So you aren’t going to do the update?” The Brit let out a scream and nearly leaped across the table to grab the attendant but Dream, who had been steadily advancing, grabbed the man around the waist and moved him back.</p><p>“As much as the guy deserves it for being so clearly ableist I don’t think you should become a murderer over his ignorance.” Sapnap had advanced towards the attendant and was seemingly having a threatening conversation if the quickly paling skin of the guy behind the table was anything to go by.</p><p>“I’m Dream, by the way. And Sapnap is the one laying it into that guy currently.”</p><p>“I’m George, the resident colorblind coder, and the biggest joke around because of it apparently.” The man—George—huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance.</p><p>“You could come and code for me? I’m an Admin so I can do most of the code but sometimes it gets overwhelming, I wouldn’t mind the help.” That wasn’t true, Dream hadn’t done enough coding in his world to know if it was too much but anything to see the Brit stop looking like someone ran over his wolf.</p><p>“I just met you, how do I know you aren’t a criminal?” It reminded Dream of offering Sapnap his friendship all those years ago and decided to stick with what he knew.</p><p>“Then you and Sapnap can commission a prison and I’ll serve out my sentence in style.” It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.</p><p>-</p><p>George had quickly become part of Dream’s hoard. It truly was no surprise when George moved to their world with just him and Sapnap, they called the world the Dream SMP one night after getting drunk off spiked berry juice and it stuck.</p><p>George hadn’t seen Dream’s face, didn’t know the extent as to why they had left their home and families behind but he didn’t push. And Dream wanted to protect him, so he trained and was hunted by them so he could protect them if the day ever came where he would have to.</p><p>George taking on half of the coding truly did make a difference in Dream’s ability to create worlds. George had been coding since he was young, blessed with the gift in the way Dream had been blessed with his fangs and End brand.</p><p>Roughly five years had passed with just the three of them as company. Dream became a legend around Hypixel as he entered MCC Tournaments and won, even found himself against Prince Technoblade one year and introducing himself. They created this faux rivalry that people adored, while Sapnap and George became well-known by association.</p><p>Dream whispered it around the fire one night in the SMP, “I had wings once. Like all End Chosen.” George hadn’t asked what happened to them, he just pressed in closer and held Dream tighter as his shoulders began to shake.</p><p>They found ways to keep themselves entertained and on high alert while hunting, George’s codes and Dream’s worlds combined to create an almost fantastical experience.</p><p>In one world they were completely blind, and in another, they could only see the 5 blocks around them. They didn’t hunt in those videos, instead, they depended on each other to survive and slay the dragon.</p><p>It was on their thirteenth dragon, unlucky number thirteen when Dream struck the fatal blow to the dragon. He cheered as George’s arrow went wide and Sapnap cried out his defeat in the background. <em>I’ve sat back long enough.</em> His joy turned to confusion in an instant at the sharp tone the Goddess took with him.</p><p>George and Sapnap seemed to notice the shift and they went to approach him when he collapsed beside the bedrock portal.</p><p>Dream was in the void again, for the first time since the Goddess had saved him from the agony of his wings and eye being taken. The Goddess was there too, her empty eyes and star-dusted cheeks. And she didn’t look happy.</p><p>
  <em>I’ve watched as you slaughtered my children, for they are as much a part of me as you are. It hurts me when you hurt them. </em>
</p><p>“You told me to protect what’s mine. How do I know I can protect them if I can’t defeat the End?”</p><p>She gripped his face with unforgiving fingers and stared into his soul. <em>You are also End. All you accomplish from this is defeating pieces of yourself, and one day you will regret facing my wrath. </em></p><p>
  <em>One day I will Call on you, choose you on purpose to fight for me and you will have no choice but to answer my Call. As Chosen you are born for two reasons, to create and to serve.</em>
</p><p>“I didn’t mean to anger you, I thought I was doing what was right.”</p><p>She shook her head with her lips curled back in a deep frown. <em>And that’s the saddest part. </em></p><p>Dream was still in the End when he came back from the void. Sapnap and George hovered over him worriedly and he sent them a grim look in return. “End is not happy with me.”</p><p>George insisted they close off the End on the SMP. “If you can’t reach the End you can’t fulfill the Call. I read about it in a book in my old village.” Dream agreed and took them to the stronghold to shut down the portal.</p><p>The code flickered in front of them as Dream worked, locking the pieces that made it possible for people to access the End. Sapnap reminded him to lock teleportation to the End in his Admin panel to cover all the bases. When Dream and Sapnap left the room, both a little paler than they would ever admit to George did his own coding.</p><p>Once the End was closed off and the portal was unable to be accessed Dream sent his invites to people that could be whitelisted on the world, feeling that it had been the three of them for long enough and more people should be able to appreciate his world. The Sleepy Kingdom royal family had responded they’d be delighted to join if they could bring the youngest prince’s best friend, their head baker, and the eldest prince’s son. Dream, of course, agreed.</p><p>Slowly the SMP grew, and when Tommy, the youngest prince asked why the End was closed off, Dream had scoffed and said he didn’t want to deal with all the elytra accidents.</p><p>Perhaps his world wasn’t perfect, but it was his, filled with his treasure and that made it perfect to him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Comments and kudos are always appreciated, let me know if I missed anything in the tags. Much love &lt;3<br/>Some things to mention before going into the next chapter:<br/>-Dream used his admin powers to enhance his sight so even though he doesn't physically have two eyes he has the sight perception of two eyes.<br/>-The Northern Kingdom (Sleepy Kingdom) is a different world than Dream and Sapnap's homeworld, and Phil was a co-admin of that world.<br/>-Fundy is Tommy's age in this story, I couldn't fit the scene in the story but Sally came from a world where time worked differently so after she had Fundy she and Wilber raised him in that world, and then Wilbur and Fundy joined the SMP and he had already aged to a teenager even though it had been like 4 years for everyone else.<br/>-Based on the previous note, Wilbur didn't spend every day in the "time warp" with Sally and Fundy so he only aged a bit faster than normal, making him technically the younger twin at birth but the older twin by age if that makes sense.<br/>-People with nonhuman characteristics (hybrids) can be descendants of Chosen</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. II. To Be Called</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dream believed that he did everything in his power to protect his hoard, his treasures. But when he stands in the ruins of Logstedshire alone he begins to question a lot of things about what's happened on the SMP.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dream had thought everything was going so well between him and Tommy. After he was exiled from L’manberg by Tubbo, Dream had brought him away from the bad memories. He’d burned the things the kid had and taught him to work for what he needed, unlike his upbringing as the youngest Sleepy Kingdom prince.</p><p>Perhaps he had gone too far, with the burning… or the fact Dream wouldn’t let him go look at the Christmas tree. He remembered the blank expression in the boy’s eyes as he pulled him back from the edge of the path in the Nether. He was only trying to protect Tommy from the bad things, wouldn’t let him be hurt as Dream had been.</p><p>As he stood around the crumbled remains of Logstedshire, Tommy had that blank look on his face once more. Dream had obviously gone wrong somewhere, had been too cruel unintentionally, and created too many bad memories that Tommy shouldn’t have to live in the middle of.</p><p>“We can go somewhere new. Build a place just for the two of us with no connection to L’manberg or the SMP. You don’t have to think about how your best friend exiled you and I can stay and <em>protect</em> you.” Dream wished he didn’t shake as he said the words, hoped the authenticity of the words got through to the teenager.</p><p>“Okay, Dream. How about you go and get whatever you want to bring with you to our new home and gather some wood and meet me back here? I’ll be waiting.” Dream ignored the still blank look in the boy’s eyes, the flat tone of his voice. His smile lit up under the mask and not for the first time he felt as if he could still fly without his wings.</p><p>Hours later as he stood in the same ruins under the starry sky that feeling faded. A tall tower that nearly reached the heavens looked down at Dream but he knew Tommy hadn’t died, hadn’t gone through with whatever delusion he was having when he built the thing.</p><p>Alone, surrounded by nothing and no one, Dream pulled off his mask and wept.</p><p><em>Treasure loses its shine after a while, doesn’t it, Dream? </em>His head snapped up at the sudden presence of the Goddess’ voice. She hadn’t spoken to him since the miscommunication all those years ago.</p><p>“My treasure still shines just as bright to me, I just am no longer their protector in their eyes.”</p><p><em>You’ve become what you once slew so many years ago. </em>A dragon? He had always been a dragon because of her. <em>A monster. </em></p><p>A whimper escaped his lips as he reflected on her words. Was he truly a monster in the eyes of his people? Of his friends and family? Perhaps he was, he thought back to where things began to break in his perfect world.</p><p>-</p><p>“As much fun as it’s been Big D, we’ve decided we’d rather run our own place. You understand right?” No, Dream didn’t understand what Tommy was saying. They didn’t want to be around him anymore, didn’t want his protection? Did they think they had a choice in that matter?</p><p>“This world and all the people in it our mine, that includes you, Tommy. You can’t break the rules of my world because you’ve decided you’re above me.” Wilbur and Tubbo stood with Tommy too, and Dream knew Fundy would ultimately side with his dad if anything truly went down.</p><p>“We’ve decided to call it L’manberg. Pog name, right?” Dream frowned at the dismissal from the child. “Wilbur will be president, formal democracy, and all that fun stuff.”</p><p>Dream wondered for a brief moment if shooting them with a crossbow would solve their ignorance. He didn’t want to risk a world-registered life being taken but perhaps intimidation would work.</p><p>“And if I declared war on <em>L’manberg</em>, how would you all take that?” Dream tilted his head and watched with a narrowed eye as Tommy brightened at the idea of war. The princeling came from a kingdom of peace, despite Techno’s tendencies their nation wasn’t known for bloodshed so he couldn’t understand the younger’s excitement for death.</p><p>“Then war we shall have!”</p><p>It had spiraled from there and never really went back to normal. The former royals were so desperate for some kind of action in what Dream could only guess was too boring a world for them they had decided to piss off the admin of the world to spark some fun.</p><p>Getting Eret to betray the royals hadn’t been difficult, they’d been invited to the server through Dream and hadn’t piggybacked off the Sleepy Kingdom like Tubbo or Niki.</p><p>When all the L’manbergians lost their first world-registered life in the Final Control Room Dream thought the rebellion would be over. They only had three deaths before they were gone, Dream’s old world had only allowed one registered death before the deaths became permanent. He remembered seeing people not come back from silly mistakes and those that didn’t disappear lingered as fragments of their past selves.</p><p>Somehow that hadn’t been the end of their war, Dream had gone to the community house when Sapnap and George were out and he curled up between two chests. He cried for his tarnished treasures and for teenage rebellion.</p><p>Dream accepted Tommy’s offering of a duel, a 1v1 at the point where the SMP would diverge into L’manberg if Tommy won. Time slowed as Dream leveled his crossbow at Tommy, the kid doing the same to him in return.</p><p>Tommy choked on his blood for a moment before the mist of respawning enveloped him. A tear dripped down his cheek as he registered the [1/3] beside Tommy’s death message. He had taken this child’s life twice and the world had taken it.</p><p>Dream wondered if it was a punishment to him because these were his treasures and he was killing them, burning them to the ground instead of protecting them. But… wasn’t he protecting them by taking out the spark of rebellion in them?</p><p>Tommy offered his discs in return for L’manberg’s independence and Dream accepted, he would rather have his treasures in two cities than have one dead drifting in the void.</p><p>-</p><p>He didn’t know this Jschlatt, but his treasures wanted him in the world, and who was he to refuse them a new friend? Tommy had given the man a tour of the SMP a while back without Dream’s knowledge. He hadn’t been whitelisted so when Dream learned of the man parading around his world he was banned without a second thought.</p><p>Things with Tommy had been tense for all of two minutes before Tubbo distracted him with something about bees.</p><p>When George had asked him to whitelist Schlatt on the world Dream had listened, of course, he did, it was <em>George</em> asking him. So Schlatt became an official member of the Dream SMP.</p><p>Schlatt endorsed the opposing political party to Wilbur and Tommy, putting out the admiration that the teenager once held for him. Dream thinks this could be a good thing, Tommy was too young to run a nation anyway.</p><p>It’s in the following days when Schlatt announces his plans for his own party to run, Schlatt2020. Dream endorses him, gives him weapons and a feral grin that can’t be seen behind the mask.</p><p>It’s when Schlatt wins that Dream falters, watching dutifully from the rafters instead of in the crowd. The glint of power in Schlatt’s eyes was eerily similar to the way the king had looked at Dream in the throne room that day.</p><p>“My first decree as president of Manberg is to revoke the citizenship of Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit!” Dream can hear Wilbur tell Tommy to run, can see the two weave their way through the crowd as Schlatt grins maniacally from the podium.</p><p>“I want them out of my city! By any means necessary!” Punz doesn’t hesitate, drawing back the bow with the same scary accuracy Dream had befriended him for. The arrow whizzes through the air and strikes Wilbur in the shoulder.</p><p>He goes down for a moment, telling Tommy to not stop running as he stumbles back to his feet. Dream thinks he’ll be sick as another arrow strikes him in the chest pitching him forward.</p><p>Wilbur sends one last look to the crowd behind him, spitting out a wad of blood to the ground behind him as he takes off running again.</p><p>Dream sprints across the rooftops to keep up with them, the others too consumed with their new president. Why had Dream ever thought this would be a good idea?</p><p>He knocks his knee painfully into the furthest roof in the city and watches as Wilbur stumbles towards the entrance of L’manberg. He wants to drop down behind him and help but doesn’t know if he’d be pushed away. He’s the one that let Schlatt in the world, he started the series of events leading to Wilbur bleeding out on the steps of L’manberg.</p><p>Tommy appears from a few steps away and rushes over to his brother, yanking him none too lightly over to a bed to solidify a new spawnpoint out of L’manberg. They share a wordless conversation before Tommy lets him go and Wilbur falls back into the mist of respawn.</p><p>
  <em>Wilbur Soot was shot by Punz [1/3]</em>
</p><p>He reappears moments later, no doubt bruising where the arrows hit him but otherwise completely healed. Tommy breaks the bed now that there’s no danger of Wilbur dying and shrinks it to store in his inventory.</p><p>“Where will we go, Will?” His voice drifts over to where Dream is still hidden on the roof, watching.</p><p>“I’ll figure it out, Toms. I always do.” Wilbur and Tommy look back on what once was their nation, the land they had fought Dream for if only to have a semblance of independence.</p><p>Dream watched as they turned and departed into the forest, and remained watching long after they disappeared.</p><p>-</p><p>The festival in Manberg was just a ruse.</p><p>Dream should have seen through it, and perhaps he had. Why he didn’t act was beyond him.</p><p>Wilbur and Tommy had established Pogtopia after their banishment, instead of rejoining the SMP and going back under Dream’s protection.</p><p>He resented them for a while, perhaps only a moment, before he accepted his role as a neutral party. Seeing as he was the admin of the world he wasn’t inclined to join either side if it meant his treasures would die.</p><p>No, Schlatt wasn’t part of the hoard, more like a piece of fool’s gold Dream would eventually get around to getting rid of. But Quackity was, George and Tubbo and Fundy, all of them were treasures that ensured he didn’t join Pogtopia.</p><p>Techno and Phil had quickly retired to the North after joining the world, taking full advantage of why Dream extended the offer to them in the first place. A vacation home away from royal duties, although they seemed content to leave the Antarctic Empire in the hands of the co-admin that had run it with Phil.</p><p>Upon the formation of Pogtopia, a few things began to happen, the beginnings of things Dream couldn’t quite see the end of. So when he saw the Blood God’s Chosen walking amongst the forest as he perched on his tree he knew it was just the beginning.</p><p>Dream didn’t abuse his admin powers like the more corrupt Chosen did. He didn’t go into spectator mode in an attempt to gain extra information. He didn’t even go into creative unless Drista couldn’t make a physical trip to the SMP and had to communicate through Dream. It eased his mind to think his sister was safe mentally while his physical body housed her consciousness on those visits.</p><p>Due to his respect for privacy, he was largely kept out of the loop on many conversations he missed. His mask luckily didn’t give away the confused look he usually had and as the admin, he gave them just enough of a scare for them not to question if he truly knew what was happening.</p><p>He didn’t know his stance with Eret after encouraging them to betray their friends but when Dream found himself on the steps of the castle Eret didn’t say anything as he let him in.</p><p>Dream spent a lot of time in the castle, avoiding the conflict if he could, knowing somewhere deep in his heart that trouble was coming and he couldn’t stop it.</p><p>When Eret found him clutching his back in one of the halls of the castle, mind muddled with phantom pain of wings long taken from him, he rested a hand on Dream’s head and coaxed his hands away from their tight grip on his shoulders.</p><p>“They called my grandfather Herobrine. The God of Chaos. He doesn’t like picking Chosen, afraid of what people will do to Chaos-Blessed,” Eret had whispered above Dream’s whimpers of pain. The pure white eyes stayed behind his sunglasses, a mark of his heritage.</p><p>“End blessed her Chosen with wings, same as her dragons. Men are greedy, seeking flight when it isn’t granted to them.” He wondered what became of his wings, if they were displayed somewhere in the king’s castle, possibly mounted beside the Ender Dragon’s head. Maybe the king had found a way to use them himself and he flew around on—Dream nearly threw up at the thought and quickly dismissed it from his mind.</p><p>Tubbo had been sneaking out of Manberg in the dead of night, seen only by Dream. The kid moved silently through the forest to the Pogtopia base before Dream looked away, feeling as if he was intruding on a secret.</p><p>On October 16<sup>th</sup>, Manberg held a festival. Schlatt, Quackity, and Tubbo stood upon the same stage Schlatt had been elected on. Dream hadn’t joined the crowd this time either, knowing if something went down he could escape or aid in who he needed to.</p><p>“Tubbo, my right-hand man, my Festival Planner, would you like to say a few words?” Schlatt had been giving a speech about how he and Quackity would make fun of Tubbo when he did things wrong.</p><p>Tubbo started on some speech about how the nation was like lettuce when Dream caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Wilbur’s beanie and the top of Tommy’s head were barely visible from where Dream was perched.</p><p>What were they doing here?</p><p>As Tubbo’s speech finished Schlatt walked over to Quackity and handed him something yellow, whispering something to him as he put on sunglasses.</p><p>In a flurry of motion Tubbo was trapped in place surrounded by yellow concrete blocks. The kid’s eyes grew wide as he looked between the two older men who looked back with equally feral smiles.</p><p>“Do you know why you’re here, Tubbo? You can take a guess if you aren’t.”</p><p>“Schlatt? Quackity? What are you guys doing?”</p><p>Schlatt sighed as Quackity bounced in place, something flickered in Dream’s heart, like it couldn’t decide between protecting Quackity anymore or letting him go.</p><p>“Tell ‘em, Mr. President! Tell them all what we’re gonna do!” Quackity cut in before Schlatt could say anything. Said man cut a slightly annoyed look over to the Vice President before fixing his grin back on Tubbo.</p><p>“Tubbo… I’ll cut to the chase, all right?” Schlatt leaned in closer to Tubbo, taking pleasure with the obvious discomfort coming off the kid. “I know what you’ve been up to.” He cupped his hand like he was going to whisper the last sentence to Tubbo, but with the silence coming from the crowd everyone heard the words.</p><p>“Schlatt? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tubbo’s voice took on a slight tone of desperation while the kid tried to grasp desperately onto the little bit of faux confidence he possessed.</p><p>Schlatt furrowed his brows, drew out the stifling silence for a moment longer before taking a deep breath and turning to face the silent, expecting crowd.</p><p>“He doesn’t know what I’m talking about, folks. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking… no, I’m not wrong. Tubbo, I know you’ve been conspiring with the tyrants we kicked out of our great nation. Do you deny it?” Tubbo stayed silent in fear and Schlatt hummed before continuing. “Treason isn’t exactly respectable around these parts. And really, don’t try to deny it cause at this point it all adds up. Do you know what we do to traitors, Tubbo?”</p><p>The kid shook his head and his voice shook on the simple response, “No.”</p><p>“Nothing good, kid. Nothing good.”</p><p>What could Dream do from the rooftops of Manberg? His inner dragon raged at the thought of Tubbo being hurt, of Quackity having a hand in what was about to happen. He could see Wilbur restraining Tommy from the other rooftop, no doubt the teenager desperate to save his best friend from whatever fate was about to come down upon him.</p><p>“—noblade. Would you make your way to the stage?” Schlatt’s voice cut through Dream’s inner turmoil as he watched the pink-haired warrior walk tensely to where the three stood.</p><p>“Schlatt, what’s going on? We’re just taking him to jail, right? Why do we need Technoblade?” Quackity’s questions were taking on a startled tone as Techno pulled out a pickaxe to let hang heavily at his side.</p><p>“You mean take him out of this thing and get him some breakfast, right?” Techno didn’t meet Tubbo’s eyes again. Dream watched Wilbur clamp a hand over Tommy’s mouth to muffle the shout rising in the younger’s throat.</p><p>“I want you to kill him, Techno. You can do that, right?” Dream watched Tommy struggle in Wilbur’s tight grip and the way the kid reached out as if he could reach Tubbo at that moment. Techno had frozen, a certain stillness Dream had only experienced with himself in earlier years when End spoke to him.</p><p>The crowd was becoming restless in anticipation for what would happen, and Dream wondered if Sapnap and George had realized Nether was Communicating with Techno at that moment. In the next moment, however, Techno regained a grip on his surroundings and Dream hoped Nether had given him good advice, even though the Goddess was called the Blood God for a reason.</p><p>Dream’s wishes did not come to pass as Techno drew out a pickaxe to hang heavily at his side and his signature boar mask and adjusted on his face. “I’m sorry, Tubbo. I’m really sorry. I’m going to make it as painless and colorful as possible.”</p><p>Dream turned away before the first swing made contact but he still heard the way Tubbo cried out. The pickaxe would be a slow death and for all of Techno’s apologies and promises he wasn’t pulling through on a painless death.</p><p>The swinging stopped but Tubbo was still in the yellow prison box as Dream looked back. Techno pulled a crossbow from his inventory, the pickaxe disappearing back into one of the inventory’s empty spaces. His hands shook slightly as he loaded the firework on it, the glazing of his eyes going unnoticed by all behind his boar mask.</p><p>The firework went off in an explosion of color, Tubbo’s sharp cry cut off instantly by the gunpowder-filled contraption. Schlatt and Quackity fell too, standing too close to the box.</p><p>
  <em>Tubbo_ went off with a bang due to a firework by Technoblade [1/3]</em>
</p><p>
  <em>jschlatt went off with a bang due to a firework by Technoblade [2/3]</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Quackity went off with a bang due to a firework by Technoblade [2/3]</em>
</p><p>“Tommy, go!” Wilbur shouts over the noise of the crowd and Dream watched as the teen pulled out a green orb. An ender pearl. The orb exploded on the podium where Quackity had sprinted to after respawning.</p><p>Tommy’s sword went right through him and another message popped up signaling Quackity’s death was not world-registered.</p><p>Dream looked over to find Wilbur gone from the roof but didn’t see him anywhere. Tommy continued to cause chaos in the crowd below as people began turning on each other.</p><p>The admin’s senses became overwhelmed from the constant stream of messages coming through the world code. He had to get away from here, just until things died down… and pray everyone stayed alive until then.</p><p>-</p><p>Dream’s cheers were crystal clear throughout the screaming of the people around him. Chunks of L’manberg disappeared before his very eyes, the picture of perfection to him. The stain of a nation was wiped clean from their history, finally.</p><p>His plan had worked so well, Wilbur had followed through, of course, he had. The guy understood the point Dream had been making this whole time, ever since he had dragged two kids into making drugs in a van and declaring a nation.</p><p>It had been all too easy after what they saw as Techno’s betrayal, the public execution of a child, of Tommy’s best friend. Dream had just gathered his supplies and handed the TNT over to Wilbur with little hesitation.</p><p>Tommy had tried to play hero but he would learn, he wasn’t the hero of this story, nobody was. Dream could make that lesson stick.</p><p>The next time he saw Wilbur, filling a wall in L’manberg with TNT he faltered for a moment. The broken tune he was humming drifted through the otherwise silent night but Wilbur didn’t turn and Dream didn’t see the manic glint in his eyes as he left.</p><p>Tommy relinquishing his position as president to <em>Tubbo</em> was a bad move. Dream felt the protective tug on both of them wrap around him like his wings were still there. President was a bad job, a dangerous job, and it came down to the hands of two <em>teenagers</em>.</p><p>Dream watched as Wilbur quietly excused himself from the celebration and walked away. His plan was going through, and soon there would be no need for a president because there would be no nation.</p><p>Techno appearing wasn’t planned, him raving about government was amusing to watch. He went on about replacing one tyrant with another and Dream wondered how he would feel if Dream had everyone under his leadership.</p><p>The scent of mint and fresh pine tipped Dream off to Phil using his admin abilities. With the world belonging to Dream any other admins' abilities were marked by smell to tip the reigning admin to possible trouble.</p><p>Techno’s smoke and leather smell had never appeared on Dream’s world. He questioned if it was Techno’s respect for his world or his lack of want in regards to using them. Probably some combination of both.</p><p>However, if Phil was teleporting around the world, he’d probably been tipped by someone that Wilbur was going to blow up L’manburg. He couldn’t have the admin ruining his—</p><p>The land exploded around him with a deafening bang.</p><p>The cries of L’manburg’s people filtered back to him as he continued to cheer. The smoke cleared to show the wreckage in front of him. The ruins of a now fallen nation, the traitor ex-president handing a sword to his father…</p><p>Dream’s cheers fell silent as he watched the exchange from a distance. Phil’s wings had wrapped around the man like they were trying to comfort him. Wilbur was walking around the small box where the button had been set, where he had dealt the final blow and blew up his land.</p><p>Everyone around him fell silent as their eyes landed on the duo as well. Techno had gotten to a platform in between the rest of the people and the box. His braid swayed in the wind as his eyes set on his father and brother.</p><p>“Kill me, Phil! They all want you to, can’t you see?!” No, this wasn’t how his plan was supposed to go. It was a nation’s end, not Wilbur’s.</p><p>Dream had heard the stories, few and far between of Chosen madness. Or lack thereof when it came to twins. Being ignored by the Gods in favor of a twin took a toll on a person’s mind, Dream just didn’t realize Wilbur was suffering from it.</p><p>Had he fueled the flames? Allowing this sickness to spread instead of getting Wilbur the help he deserved? Wilbur Soot, one of his first treasures, an emerald that begged to be more useful than it was than the world had allowed.</p><p>“Someone stop him!” Dream yelled, nobody turned to look at him as the scene in front of them continued.</p><p>“You’re my son!” Wilbur took a step back from Phil, looked as if he were seeing him for the first time in a long time. What Gods did Wilbur think he heard? The Nether Goddess that Chose his brother? The Snowy Tundra God that Chose his father?</p><p>“Look what I did, Phil! My L’manberg, my great unfinished symphony forever unfinished!” Wilbur choked on his words as he said the nation’s name. A nation Dream had ripped away from him, had given him the means to destroy by his own hands.</p><p>Tommy had seemed to snap out of his stupor and was being held back by Fundy and Tubbo from recklessly trying to reach them. He was shouting curses at his best friend and nephew, pleading to be let go.</p><p>Dream surveyed the damage he had caused. He had torn apart this family, driven Wilbur insane, let Techno be isolated, the bonds felt thin and tasted sour.</p><p>Wilbur fell to his knees, looking up at his father, at the man who had raised him and loved him even though he wasn’t Chosen. “I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t want to hurt anyone, Phil. I’d rather die by your hand in the arms of someone I love than by slain by my enemy.”</p><p>Phil looked at the sword in his hand, then back down to his son. His precious boy who had taken up a guitar when his mother died so music could still live on in the house, who had watched Techno be Chosen, and whined about not having “cool pink hair” too. This boy who had fallen in love so young had a son and lost the love of his life too quickly. He’d led a nation and watched it fall to a tyrant, and when hope was near he blew it up by his own hand.</p><p>“I love you, Wil.”</p><p>Time stopped all around the Dream SMP. Everyone froze, except for Dream, who stood with his hands encased in blue world code, glowing green eyes hidden beneath the mask.</p><p>“I’m not letting the story end like this,” he growled as he teleported to the room with Wilbur and Phil. The sword rested inches away from Wilbur’s chest. Wilbur, who had his eyes closed, looked at peace with the fact he was going to die.</p><p>Dream wasn’t at peace with it. So, it wasn’t happening.</p><p>Breaking into the world panel was simple enough when he created the world, simply ripping into an area where code floated often did the trick. Accessing people in the world was a little harder, he often had George help him look for specifics but he was on his own here.</p><p>There it was. A tiny green thread of code, minuscule in comparison to the rest of the world code. He tugged on it sharply and watched as the code squirmed in his hands, a sentient thing aware of what was going to happen.</p><p>He broke it, watched it flicker briefly as if it could stay active in pieces before it gave up and disappeared. It wouldn’t solve everything, Wilbur would need help with recovery. But the Chosen madness was gone, the voices had left, he would live.</p><p>As long as Dream moved Phil’s sword away from Wilbur’s chest before resuming time.</p><p>Dream tugged Wilbur back as the world clock resumed and Phil almost toppled over had it not been for Dream standing there. The two looked at him in bewilderment, Phil’s eyes briefly flickering to Wilbur, before they settled on him.</p><p>“My world was created for peace, having a father kill his son didn’t seem very peaceful.” Dream looked over at Wilbur as if waiting for something to click. He didn’t have to wait long.</p><p>“They’re gone,” he gasped, a hand coming up to muffle his sobs. “The voices are gone.”</p><p>“And they should stay gone, but if they come back… there’s three Chosen in the world who can make them go away again.” Dream turned to the boarded-up entrance of the button room before looking back at the two one final time. “Don’t make me regret this.”</p><p>-</p><p>“Dream please escort Tommy Innit off these lands.” Tubbo’s voice was devoid of any emotion as Tommy screamed behind him. Dream gently grabbed the kid and hoisted him away from the lands he was banished from. Sapnap followed behind him.</p><p>“Don’t sweat it, Tommy. You have access to the whole world, it’s pretty great, and I should know, I made it!” Dream tried to stay positive as the kid behind him on the boat fumed the entire trip.</p><p>Sure, he was being abandoned by all the people he had ever known in his life, and the lands he had come to call home but it would be okay because Tommy could make new memories.</p><p>“I could go with him, right Phil?” Wilbur had wanted to reach out for his younger brother, to tell him he wasn’t alone. But Phil’s grip tightened gently on his wrist as he looked at his father’s sad eyes.</p><p>“I’m sure he won’t mind if you visit, Wilbur. But it’s probably not good for you to go off…” After the first time you were banished, it drove you to the brink of insanity and wanted me to kill you, went unsaid.</p><p>“All right, have some blue then.” The powdery dye had all but stained his hands after a couple of weeks of distributing it around. It made him feel like his sadness was seeping out of him, maybe it could help someone else too.</p><p>The space Tommy decided on being his home was… plain. There was no spark of magic in the air the Chosen brought with them, there weren’t any chords from Wilbur’s guitar being played. It was just empty land, all for Tommy.</p><p>So he began to build.</p><p>Eret being king had made them practically untouchable, a neutral party everyone’s eyes brushed over. But George, whose loyalty had always laid in Dream’s path, was a target as king.</p><p>Tommy, the brat, burned down the house George made for what? Because he could? Well, Dream had news for him, he wasn’t a prince in the SMP world and he would learn discipline and respect one way or another.</p><p>“Take off the armor you have on… actually, just toss out everything in your inventory.” Dream’s voice was monotone and he stayed silent as Tommy raved on about the unfairness of it.</p><p>It would teach him to be dedicated to a cause that wasn’t war or L’manberg or war for L’manberg. But Dream couldn’t say that instead, he said, “Do it, Tommy.” Eventually, he did.</p><p>It became routine, for Dream to visit Tommy in what the kid had named Logstedshire. Wilbur accompanied him sometimes if he wasn’t having one of his bad days. He brought Tommy lots of blue dye and practically smothered the kid with it.</p><p>Tommy talked about L’manberg still, about Tubbo and the others, and how much he missed them. Dream didn’t comment, wondered if him staying silent made a difference in the end.</p><p>When L’manberg set up their Christmas tree Sapnap and Wilbur came with him to see Tommy. It was brought up casually, in passing conversation. But Tommy latched onto anything L’manberg and begged to see the tree.</p><p>“You know the rules, Tommy.” The kid’s eyes had dimmed in his time being alone in Logstedshire. Dream wondered if Wilbur should have come with him when he was first banished, wondered how that would have been handled.</p><p>“I’d like to see the tree,” Sapnap egged him on and Tommy swallowed thickly at the obvious baiting they were doing. Wilbur, mind still frazzled and healing didn’t quite latch onto the bit they were doing.</p><p>“I could go take a picture of it for you, Tommy. You could hang it up in your tent if you’d like.” Tommy nodded and the prospect of having a piece of L’manberg, even if it was just a photo.</p><p>Dream and Tommy followed Wilbur and Sapnap through the first portal and both stayed silent as the two ahead chattered on to the L’manberg portal.</p><p>“All right, we’ll be right back.” Dream said as the three stepped through leaving Tommy on the nether platform. Sapnap started to climb the tree as Wilbur looked for a camera to take a picture with.</p><p>Dream felt a small tug, a pain so deep he almost clutched his chest. He thought for a moment he was having a heart attack like Schlatt. But the pain was connected to his treasure, his diamond in the rough.</p><p>He stepped back through the portal to see Tommy’s shaking form staring over the unfenced side of the pathway. Panic seized briefly in his chest at the idea that Tommy was going to jump.</p><p>He grabbed the back of the kid’s shirt and heaved him from the platform. He wished the kid could see the pain written on Dream’s face from what he’d been about to do. Did Tommy think Dream didn’t care?</p><p>“It’s not your time to die, Tommy,” he whispered to the kid, hoping to see some spark in his dull blue eyes come back.</p><p>“It’s never my time to die,” he responded. The spark didn’t appear.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve decided to give you the throne back. George is too big a target as king and he’s no good at being a neutral party member.” Dream told Eret as everyone mingled about. He hadn’t told George his decision to dethrone him, but surely he would understand, would appreciate the effort Dream was putting into everything.</p><p>Sapnap stalked forward until he was a few feet from Dream. He looked livid, and George standing behind him looked sad. Was everything okay?</p><p>“Dream, care to explain what you said to Tommy a few days ago?” What?</p><p>“You’re going to have to be more specific, I say a lot of things to Tommy.”</p><p>“Okay, about how you care about nothing except the discs.” Dream scoffed, lighting Sapnap’s fury.</p><p>“I care about you guys. I’m dethroning George <em>because</em> I care about him.” He looked at both his friends, the first to have joined the world with him. The bonds between them tasted bitter.</p><p>“Just say you hate me.” George’s voice was quiet but Dream had always been tuned into the two of them. His ruby and sapphire, the treasures he held closest to his heart.</p><p>“I can’t say that it isn’t true. George, you’re being ridiculous.” Dream tried to reach out for one of them but they both backed away.</p><p>Anger sparked low in his gut, his growl barely contained. “I can be the bad guy in your story. Fine, Eret’s king and there’s nothing you can do about it.”</p><p>Dream pulled off his mask and buried his face as the two walked away, neither looking back.</p><p> </p><p>He started living with Tommy in Logstedshire. Misery loves company, his and Tommy’s would pair quite nicely.</p><p>Dream occasionally asked Tommy to burn his things, but the kid had learned what it meant to depend on something, and you couldn’t depend on things like armor or weapons <em>or your best friends</em> to get you through life.</p><p>Tommy’s spark returned in time with Dream’s vanishing. An empty hole where Sapnap and George used to sit laid dormant. His treasures were fine, he would know if they weren’t, but he couldn’t even call them their names anymore, it just hurt too much.</p><p>Had Dream not given everything for them? He’d given his wings and eye for Sapnap. He gave access to his world code to George. They repaid him in kind by throwing him aside the moment he didn’t give them power.</p><p>Wilbur visited on his own in the coming days, smearing blue over Dream’s mask and hoodie in addition to Tommy’s face. Tommy gave him invitations to take back to L’manberg for a beach party he was hosting.</p><p>No matter how hard Dream tried to separate Tommy from the bad memories the kid still clung to them. He followed Wilbur through the Nether portal and told him he would take care of the invites. Wilbur seemed grateful to not have to remember such an important task, handing them over without comment in Dream’s direction.</p><p>When Wilbur disappeared through the L’manberg portal he hesitated for only a moment before he let the paper flutter over the railing into the lava below.</p><p>He spent a lot of time exploring new caves when he wasn’t in Logstedshire with Tommy. The unexplored land left heaps of minerals for Dream to bring back to Tommy. “Olive branches,” Tommy had scoffed the first time Dream presented him with a diamond.</p><p>“If that’s how you want to look at it, sure. Olive branches. Truce trees. Whatever.” The diamond had given off a blue hue that reflected back in Tommy’s eyes, the same shade. Dream’s diamond in the rough.</p><p>Dream came back to an empty beach after his latest mining expedition. He remembered Tommy setting up for the party this morning before he left but he didn’t plan on the mine drying up so fast and forcing him back so soon.</p><p>Tommy sat stoically in the middle of the party. Tears streamed down his cheeks and Dream wanted to wrap him in a hug, wanted his wings so it could feel like one of Phil’s hugs.</p><p>“Why didn’t they come, Dream?” his voice was so small for such a lanky body. The kid had hit his real growth spurt sometime in the exile and his gangly limbs became something Logstedshire had to adapt to.</p><p>“I don’t know, Tommy,” he moved forward, reaching for the kid’s shoulder when he jerked away with wide eyes.</p><p>“You were right. They don’t care, they’ve already forgotten about me!” The cries coming from the child begged for Dream’s comfort but Dream stood frozen in place.</p><p>Was this Wilbur all over again? Had Dream pushed another of his treasures too far when he just wanted them safe? The Sleepy Kingdom family was fractured, and once again it was all Dream’s fault.</p><p>“That’s not true. Maybe they forgot it was today! Or… or did you forget to put what time to show up, on the invites? Maybe they’re just late.” Things were spiraling and Dream wished for the first time in a long time End would give him advice on what to do. On how to fix this. But she was silent as always.</p><p>“No! It had the time and the date and the coordinates in case someone was stupid enough to forget there was a Nether portal to here. I took every precaution for them, and they couldn’t spare me a moment.” The coldness in Tommy’s voice scared Dream. It was too much like the Tommy he found standing over the lava pool in the Nether.</p><p>“Everything is going to be okay, Tommy. I promise.” Dream pulled Tommy in for a hug, ignoring the way the kid was nearly as tall as him now. Tommy weakly gripped the back of Dream’s hoodie in response.</p><p>“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”</p><p>Tommy held on to the compass Wilbur had gifted him like it was a totem of undying. <em>Your Tubbo</em> engraved in the lid. Dream was happy, he was. He just wanted what they had, he wanted George and Sapnap back.</p><p>It was days before everything fell apart between them, Dream and Tommy had constructed a small campfire and were lounging in silence.</p><p>“Did I ever tell you why I made the SMP?” Dream asked. It took Tommy a moment to break away from the peaceful roar of the fire and focus on Dream’s words, but once he had he was hooked.</p><p>He recounted the early days of being an End Chosen in an outskirts village in the kingdom of Westerly. He told him how he met Sapnap and swore to protect him because dragons protect their hoard. He told Tommy how the king had threatened Sapnap’s life if Dream didn’t give the location of the Ender Dragon, how he had led them to the stronghold… how the king had taken his wings and eye.</p><p>Tommy became the third person on the SMP to see his unmasked face. Dream had adorned a black slip to cover the missing eye, the scar of where they carved it out still visible as it traveled further down the silken material.</p><p>Tommy had hugged him, had told him when the time came he would stand by Dream’s side and take down the king if that’s what he chose to do. Dream had allowed himself to feel safe and protected, and that’s where he slipped up.</p><p>“Dream, I can explain!” Tommy yelled from above. Dream stood in the secret room Tommy had constructed, plans to take him down and run away thrown across the room after Dream had torn into them, begging for it to be a sick joke.</p><p>“There’s nothing to explain, Tommy! You want me gone so bad… I’ll take away what we had!” The TNT was lit in his hands before he was truly processing his actions.</p><p>Numbly he realized Tommy pulling him from the wreckage of Logstedshire, of <em>their home</em>. A gasp escaped him as his senses came back, as he processed Tommy standing away from him like he was a ticking time bomb. Perhaps he was.</p><p>“It’s gone… Logstedshire’s gone. But we can go somewhere new, just the two of us. Away from the bad memories, away from <em>them</em>, and just live. Don’t you want that?” Tommy told Dream to gather supplies and return to Logstedshire.</p><p>What a fool he was, returning to an empty land blown up by his own hand.</p><p>-</p><p>Yes, his world was broken. He’d been there at every turn with an opportunity to fix it but he decided to play sidelines. Perhaps if he hadn’t given Wilbur the TNT or pushed Tommy to be exiled he wouldn’t be sitting where he was. Alone, unloved, and feared by the whole SMP.</p><p>“They think I’m a monster. They always have, I’ve just given them reasons to match the title to my actions.” <em>So young, too young to have gone through what you have. </em></p><p>“You once told me we must overcome the struggles of life to understand our true purpose,” he rose from the ruins of Logstedshire, the smell of pomegranates slowly rising in the air. “I don’t know what my purpose is if it isn’t protecting them.”</p><p><em>Let me show you what you can be. </em>The fruity smell was thick in the air, almost suffocating Dream. <em>Give in and it will all be better. </em></p><p>“I once promised my friends I wouldn’t answer your Call. I don’t plan on going back on that promise.”</p><p><em>What was that thing the diamond told you, Dream? Don’t make promises you can’t keep. </em>The world felt hazy and Dream choked on the pomegranate smell and fell back on his knees. He had Nightmare clutched weakly in his fist, but it made no difference as the lightning struck signaling the beginning of the Call.</p><p> </p><p>The world rumbled in response to the Call. Everyone felt it, from Techno and Tommy in the North to the residents mingling on L’manberg and the Dream SMP lands.</p><p>“Is someone going to explain what that earthquake just was?” Quackity asked as Tubbo came to the executive decision to gather in the Community House.</p><p>“I didn’t even know earthquakes were programmed on this world,” Fundy joined in the conversation as everyone started throwing out theories.</p><p>The door to the house was thrown open as Phil rushed in with Wilbur trailing behind him looking just as confused as he always was these days. The winged man walked up to Tubbo and grabbed the boy by the shoulders.</p><p>“This is a serious matter, Tubbo. You need to lift Techno’s and Tommy’s bans in the SMP immediately.” Conversation exploded around them as people tried to pry answers out of Phil.</p><p>“You’re president, Tubbo. Just say the words so they can teleport here.” Tubbo looked at the man who had taken him in and raised him like a father. Whatever was going on was obviously distressing him, so Tubbo could do him this favor.</p><p>“Okay. Technoblade and Tommy Innit are allowed in the Dream SMP lands.” Phil sighed out his thanks as he sent out a private message to Techno giving him the all-clear.</p><p>The two glowing silhouettes only lasted a moment before both of the men stood before the rest of the room. Techno went over to Phil instantly while Tommy casually backed away from the prying eyes of those he hadn’t seen in months.</p><p>“If it’s neither of us then it must be Dream,” Techno’s voice cut through the tension of the room, eyes turning back to the two Chosen in the room.</p><p>Sapnap and George stepped up from where they had been standing behind Quackity and Karl silently. “What does this have to do with Dream?”</p><p>Phil and Techno turned to the two former best friends of the SMP creator. Phil had the decency to look a bit solemn. “Everything.”</p><p>“Oh, Gods!” Wilbur had been quiet where he was perched by the window. Everyone’s eyes turned to him as he gazed off in the distance, lightning cracking with a violent purple hue to it.</p><p>He turned to see everyone’s eyes on him and pointed out the window. “The End Goddess is not happy about something.”</p><p>“The End Goddess? She hasn’t spoken to Dream in years! Not since our last manhunt before we invited you all to the server and she—” George’s voice cut off abruptly on his next word as he turned to Sapnap in a panic. “Dream’s been Called.”</p><p>"No, there's no way. Why would she Call him now?" Sapnap refuted. </p><p>Techno raised an eyebrow at the two who continued to bicker back and forth. "So, for the people who didn't grow up around Chosen is someone going to explain what being Called means?" Karl asked.</p><p>"It means the God that Chose you has decided to Call on you to act as a vessel," Techno brushed back his braid as he pointed between Phil and himself. "Any Chosen can be Called. It's typically used as a fighting method between Gods since they can't harm each other. They can... possess their Chosen and settle their dispute through violence." </p><p>"And these fights, are they to the death? Or do the Gods just like stop when they feel the issue is resolved?" Niki asked, looking worriedly out the window where Wilbur was back to watching the lightning move closer.</p><p>"Nine times out of ten... it's to the death." Quackity's laugh that sounded after the statement was unexpected but he seemed to be having a time.</p><p>"You mean to tell me we have a murderous Dream running around possessed by the End Goddess right now?" </p><p>"Dream has to go to the End for the Call to be completed. And from what I've heard, that isn't possible."</p><p>"Oh no," George sucked in a sharp breath before taking a step back from the window he had approached. "He's coming for me. I coded the frames so he couldn't reach the End in case this ever happened. I'm the only one who can remove them." </p><p>"We won't let that happen, George, we'll—" Sapnap was cut off by a crack of lightning right outside the Community House.</p><p>The door slowly creaked open to reveal a maskless Dream standing before them. The green of his eye was gone and replaced by the signature glowing purple of End's Call and his fangs were on full display.</p><p>“Oh, George!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Comments and kudos are always appreciated. Let me know if I missed anything in the tags, much love &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. III. To Be Complete</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dream's Call comes with some challenges to be complete and Calls demand challengers to be fulfilled. Is this the end of Dream?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Techno reacted first to the possible threat, brandishing a sword protectively over George and the others closest to him. Dream’s eye lit up at the challenge, his axe swung over his shoulder lazily as he looked at the group.</p>
<p>“All of you in one place… Gods I could sing at the joy I feel,” his head cocked to the side slightly, “Under different circumstances, of course.”</p>
<p>“Dream, you don’t have to do this. We’re your friends.” Bad went to reach for him before being stopped by Skeppy. The lower demon looked pleadingly at the Chosen in front of him like he could break out of whatever trance the End Goddess had placed him in.</p>
<p>“I’m not doing anything, Bad. We’re having a civil conversation where Techno threatens me with a sword and I tell George he only has one option.” Techno blinked at the man in front of him who clearly wasn’t speaking for himself.</p>
<p>“This isn’t threatening you, Dream. But I can change that really quickly.” A second sword pointed in Dream’s direction with little hesitation from the owner of the sword.</p>
<p>Dream scoffed and brushed the blade aside so it was off-center from his chest, aimed directly for his heart. “If you’re going to threaten someone at least have the decency to go all out.”</p>
<p>His smile was feral, no longer the admin who had greeted them to his first world with smiles, instead just a shell of himself whose only purpose was to get to the End.</p>
<p>When a person is Called their mind is slowly consumed by completing the Call if the connection isn’t immediate. As retaliation for resisting the Call, the Gods would take the Chosen’s memories to persuade them to heed the Call, having that be the only clear goal in mind.</p>
<p>The End Goddess had obviously realized the End wasn’t accessible and taken drastic measures to drive Dream to the put where he was, staring down his friends with little thought in mind if they were going to be hurt in the process.</p>
<p>“To be Chosen is to be cursed.” Dream’s words were smooth, baiting someone in the room to complete the phrase.</p>
<p>“To be Called is to be freed.” Came the reply.</p>
<p>Dream turned to look at Wilbur, who hadn’t moved from his spot by the window. His expression was carefully blank like he had masked it to be that way. He was staring back at Dream.</p>
<p>“Do you remember what you did?” Wilbur asked as he stood up. Phil moved to grab Wilbur but he held up his hand and pointed in Dream’s direction. Phil looked back to see Dream standing there with confusion painted on his face.</p>
<p>“I didn’t remember at first. And when I did remember I thought it would be easier to just pretend that I hadn’t. You told me I didn’t have to listen to the voices in my head, why do you have to listen to yours?”</p>
<p>Dream snarled and turned his head away from where Wilbur was still standing beside Phil. Did he remember? Everything was so hazy, she had promised it would be better if he gave in and the smell of fruit was so overwhelming… he’d given in.</p>
<p>Memories of Before were filled with fuzzy shapes of people. He could feel the love he felt for them, the same love he felt for the people in the room. What had he done to have them all standing against him?</p>
<p>“Before is meaningless. Whatever happened, whatever I said, doesn’t matter. All that matters now is that George comes with me.” The words were sour in his mouth like he knew he shouldn’t be saying them, but did he know that?</p>
<p>“No, you have to remember or you’ll slip away from us. She can’t have your memories, they’re yours.” Wilbur had shrugged off Phil’s hand from his shoulder and was walking toward Dream with a purpose.</p>
<p>Perhaps Dream could get a good swing in with Nightmare before Techno gutted him, but he was intrigued. Wilbur stopped a foot away from him, eyes set hard like they’d been when he’d led L’manberg.</p>
<p>L’manberg, the traitor nation. The land that was taken from his protection by two princes that had abandoned their thrones and the adopted heir of the king. Pieces were still fuzzy, Eret was blocking the exit of a room, a man stood at a podium as Tommy and Wilbur ran away.</p>
<p>“We can stay here all night if that’s how long it takes for you to come back to us, Dream.” Wilbur’s hand on his shoulder was heavy, the contact almost too much for him to process.</p>
<p>When was the last time someone had touched him? His mind flickered with an image of Tommy hugging him but with the way the kid looked at him now, he must have imagined it.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately that’s not going to work for me, Wilbur. So, kindly step out of my way before I regret the favor I did by keeping you alive.” Because he had saved Wilbur, from himself and from Phil’s sword that would have taken his final life.</p>
<p>“Dream, just take a breath. We’re all friends here.” Phil’s words didn’t match the actions of those in the room. George leaning behind Sapnap who stood protectively in front of him. Techno’s sword still pointed at his heart from where Dream had adjusted it. Tommy’s blue eyes staring coldly into Dream’s soul, he couldn’t believe he had wasted so much time with the kid trying to convince him Dream wasn’t some evil person.</p>
<p>“Friends? You think you’re all my friends?” He pretended to think about it for a second before the glow in his eye brightened. His gaze settled on Tommy, smiling at the kid to show off the true extent of the fangs he’d been gifted with.</p>
<p>“I’ve told you once or twice, right Tommy? Friendship only makes you vulnerable in the end, well not the End… which is where I would like to be right now.” Tommy went to step forward but Tubbo’s hand caught on his upper arm, the two teens having a silent conversation before Tommy backed up to his original place.</p>
<p>He nodded slowly, understood that to a certain extent Tommy had believed him; thought everyone in this very room wanted nothing to do with him, including his best friend, the boy who was practically his brother. At one time he would have believed if it were him in Tommy’s place, staring down some maniac, he would back down for George or Sapnap.</p>
<p>“Just admit it, Dream. The Call can’t be completed if you don’t go to the End, and George isn’t opening the portal.” Sapnap’s voice was cold, he was too concentrated on appearing emotionless that Dream saw right through him.</p>
<p>“You scared, Nick?” A grin appeared when Sapnap’s eyes narrowed in response to the taunt. “Afraid I’ll go back on my promise… leave George in the stronghold… like they left us?” The narrowed eyes widened at the casual way Dream had brought it up.</p>
<p>“What’s life without a little trauma?” He tilted his head to the side, focus completely on Sapnap’s reaction. “Gives a person some personality.”</p>
<p>Perhaps taking his focus off the others wasn’t smart, the way he jolted back at the arrow that lodged in his shoulder. His nose scrunched as if he had just discovered a stain on a white t-shirt.</p>
<p>Eret’s face was impassive, the sunglasses still adorned on his face, hiding the bottomless white pits Herobrine’s genetics had gifted him with. Eret was different than Chosen, blessed by the Gods and given their gifts so they could perform their duties. Eret didn’t have duties, just raw power passed down by a God who had wanted to settle instead of Choose.</p>
<p>He stumbled slightly as the weakness kicked in from the arrow, a clever trick on their part. “You all think you’re so smart…” his words slurred as he went to take another stumbling step forward. Techno’s blade pressed into his chest, he gripped the offending blade with his hand, uncaring how it made him bleed. “It won’t make her stop.”</p>
<p>But the hilt of a sword coming down on the back of his head made him.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>He snapped awake tied to a chair in the middle of the Community House. Everyone else was mingling around having their own conversations, Dream did his best to act like he was still unconscious. If he could access his admin abilities he could teleport out of the chair, grab George, and teleport to the stronghold before anyone had time to react.</p>
<p>“He’s awake.” Damn it, Fundy. With no use keeping up the ploy Dream lifted his head to look everyone in the eye.</p>
<p>“How hard did you hit him, Wil? His nose is bleeding.” A girl’s voice reached his ears as said girl stepped forward to clean away the mess on his face. Her blonde hair curled past her shoulders and she had an accent that sounded vaguely German, but accents had never been Dream’s strong suit so he wasn’t sure.</p>
<p>“It was a wooden sword, Niki. He probably hit it on the floor when he fell.” Wilbur’s voice drifted to him from somewhere past the girl’s—Niki’s—shoulder. Was Niki a new resident of L’manberg? No, something wasn’t right here, Dream could see the bond that connected them already, even though they had just met. <em>Jade</em>.</p>
<p>He tore his gaze from Niki and looked back around the room, seeing Fundy still perched on the stairs where he had probably been when he saw Dream wake up. George and Sapnap were leaning against some chests some distance away, probably aware they would be his first targets to try and reach if he got free. Wilbur stood in a slightly larger group with his dad, King Philza Minecraft, and his brother Tommy. But two other people were standing in the group with them as well.</p>
<p>The one with his back to Dream was obviously Nether Chosen, surprising since Nether hadn’t Chosen in over 50 years that Dream had been aware of, yet this guy was probably around his age if not a couple of years older. The other unfamiliar brunet looked to be around Tommy’s age. Good, besides Fundy the kid had no one that was his age in the world, Dream worried sometimes he’d get too lonely. The brunet was littered with burn marks, all over his face and arms and he winced internationally at the thought of whatever world-death had left those marks on the kid.</p>
<p>They too felt familiar, like Niki, but he couldn’t place where he knew them from. <em>Heliotrope. Amethyst. </em>His eyes flickered to the final group in the room where two more unfamiliar people stood with Eret, Bad, and Karl. The lesser demon was practically curled around the man adorned in blue, even his cheeks had an odd blue reflection to them like blue glitter had been sprinkled on his face. The other was keeping up a steady conversation with Karl, the duck wings on his back unmoving like they were nonfunctional. <em>Lapis. Topaz. </em></p>
<p>A sharp burst of pain shot through his head like someone was trying to rip out chunks of his brain. He suppressed the whine that curled up in his chest and instead tried to focus on Niki, who had taken a seat on the floor near him.</p>
<p>His hands were still bound, and the arrow wound on his shoulder throbbed in time with his heartbeat. His nose felt like it was running, so he sniffled, bringing Niki’s attention back to him. The panic that emerged on her face confused him, were his sinuses acting up and he had snot rolling down his face?</p>
<p>“Dream! Oh, Gods, why is it bleeding again?” His nose was bleeding again? But it had just stopped, Niki had just wiped away all the blood and now it was bleeding again?</p>
<p>“It’s bleeding again? Is he having a reaction to the weakness potion?” Fundy asked from his other side on the stairs. His head lolled to the side to try and see the fox hybrid but all the motion accomplished was to make him dizzy so he stopped.</p>
<p>“He’s been hit with them before, it’s never done this. Phil, does this have to do with the Call?” The Call… The Call… The Call… that was something important, something Dream wanted, no <em>needed</em>, and he couldn’t remember it.</p>
<p>He missed Phil walking over until the man was in his face. King Philza Minecraft was an overwhelming presence. Dream could only remember being in his presence to welcome him to the SMP before the man promptly retired to the snowy mountains of the north. Wilbur and Tommy had been with him, accustomed to the energy their father radiated, having grown up in the castle with him.</p>
<p>“—eam. Dream, concentrate. Look at me.” Words broke through the haze of Dream’s mind and he looked back to see the man’s icy blue eyes staring back at him. He could tell the others in the room were hovering behind Phil, no doubt wondering what was happening. Dream was wondering the same.</p>
<p>The air was charged with Phil’s and Dream’s powers clashing, Phil trying to push past the barriers Dream had put in place and find out what was wrong. But Dream had taken precautions, he didn’t allow his code to be tampered with.</p>
<p>“Is there any reason I’m being overthrown right now? By two Chosen no less.” His words stopped Phil’s prodding magic as the man pulled back to look at him with slightly unconcealed shock.</p>
<p>“Dream we’re not overthrowing you.”</p>
<p>“Really, because from where I’m sitting it sure looks that way. Nice surprise, by the way, I didn’t even know Nether had Chosen again after what happened to her last one.” Phil’s brows furrowed as the pink-haired Chosen in question tilted his head, scrutinizing him.  </p>
<p>“Dream, you know Techno. He’s my eldest son, you invited him along with the rest of my family when you started allowing people into the SMP.” But that wasn’t right, this <em>Techno</em> wasn’t in any of his memories of meeting the Sleepy Kingdom family. Much less just being around his world.</p>
<p>“All right, and say I believe you. That doesn’t explain why I’ve never met him before, why I haven’t met like… four other people here. This is my world, how did you all get here without me knowing?” His gaze settled on Niki first, his nose twitched as Wilbur reached out to pull her further from Dream.</p>
<p>His gaze flickered to the scarred boy beside Tommy, the small ram horns just now becoming noticeable in the light. Tommy leveled him with a hard look that made Dream roll his eyes as he looked at the blue man Bad was holding, moving on from him quick to not upset Bad. His gaze settled on the duck hybrid and said man barked out a laugh as he jumped in place beside Karl.</p>
<p>“That’s golden. Dream doesn’t remember us, that’s great, really great. Now, Phil. How do we fix it?” The winged man stuttered in front of him as Dream’s attention shifted back to him.</p>
<p>“I—I’m really not sure, to be honest. Chosen aren’t typically so… frazzled by a Call.” There was that word again, Call.</p>
<p>“I’ve been Called? By a Goddess who refuses to speak to me? Lovely.” Dream observed the ties around his wrists and ankles, piecing together what must be happening.</p>
<p>“I can’t reach the End, is that it? That’s why I came here for George. Well, that explains it.” Dream settled back in the chair waiting for the inevitable—</p>
<p>“Explains what?” Tommy asked. Dream smirked at the predictable group.</p>
<p>“When Chosen don’t heed their Call their God gets mad. I don’t recall exactly but Wilbur mentioned something earlier… letting me slip away. They take your memories in retaliation for fighting the Call.”</p>
<p>A particularly sharp pain radiated through his head and he took a deep breath as he physically felt his memories be ripped from his mind. “You either let me go to her, or I forget all of you.” He winced as a memory was brought to the front of his mind instead of being ripped away. <em>Just say you hate me. </em>A frown curled at his lips at the thought, “Perhaps that’s what you’re all waiting for, a brand-new me to start over with. That won’t remember the bad things I did… or the good things. But you get to keep the good memories, and make new ones.”</p>
<p>“Dream, please don’t say that,” George broke away from where he and Sapnap had been standing to walk over to Dream. “We’re always going to want the you in front of us, the good and the bad.”</p>
<p>A tear ran down his face as the memory of meeting George was ripped from him. His memories with George and Sapnap were embedded so deep in his heart, it made him who he was as a person, were they really going to do this to him.</p>
<p>“I had wings once… and they were beautiful like the Ender Dragon’s. They carried me everywhere. And then one day the king of Westerly got fed up with not finding the stronghold, so he took Sapnap and told me it was the dragon or him… End told me to always protect what was mine. So I led them to the dragon and they broke their promise, they took my wings… and my eye… and I started the SMP to protect Sapnap,” his voice broke on the last words, looking up from where George had been sitting to look at the rest of the people in the room. “Did I break my promise? Did I not protect you?”</p>
<p>Arms wrapped around him from behind, the warmth that only Sapnap could produce hitting him. “You did everything you could, and we all took advantage of you, let this happen. You saved my life once, Dream, now it’s time I repay the favor.” Sapnap’s nimble fingers unwrapped the binds on his wrists before anyone had even processed his words.</p>
<p>Techno pulled out his sword to hang by his side just in case Dream tried any funny business, but the boy simply wrapped his arms around his two best friends and wept.</p>
<p>“I tried so hard to fight it. I told her I’d made you a promise to fight it when I was Called, but I broke that promise, just like all my other ones.” George lifted Dream’s tear-stained face to look him in the eye.</p>
<p>“Can’t you see it, Dream. You’ve fought it this whole time. Now it’s time to let go, we’ll be with you the whole time.” Dream looked back at Sapnap who gave him a nod and squeezed his hand encouragingly.</p>
<p>Dream looked at his treasures for a final time, even the ones he couldn’t remember the names of... he knew them, the deepest parts of them that were important to Dream. His emerald and jade stood side by side, near his diamond and amethyst. And all his other treasures were there too, Dream was okay because he had protected them.</p>
<p>The crystalline blue of Dream’s teleportation powers enveloped the three before they disappeared from sight, off to face their final End battle.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Dream’s teleporting had brought them right to the portal room, the frames seemingly fine but virtually uncrossable due to George’s advanced coding. Dream and Sapnap stood back as George stepped forward to activate the unlocking code.</p>
<p>He looked back to see them standing there with slightly uncomfortable looks on their faces, and with George having heard the story twice now in many years he didn’t blame them for their hesitation to be in the room.</p>
<p>“I’d like to keep a few secrets of code to myself. Could you guys just step out and I’ll tell you when you can come back in?” He watched their shoulders relax the further they walked out of the room and smiled slightly before beginning to work.</p>
<p>Minutes passed as he meticulously picked through the red code coating the frames in front of him. He’d practically turned them into adventure blocks in survival mode but had also made the air above the frames practically unmovable to create a barrier Dream couldn’t cross.</p>
<p>It was a shame all his work was going to waste, but now that he knew it would hold for as long as it had, and probably longer, he could only imagine the possibilities.</p>
<p>“Okay, you guys are good to come in!” He called once the last thread had been pulled, watching the whole barrier collapse before his eyes. They appeared in the doorway behind him and Dream walked over to the frames and pressed a hesitant hand against where it had once been unmovable air. It gave away easily and a hesitant smile spread across Dream’s face as if he wasn’t sure this was something to be happy about.</p>
<p>“Did you bring… the Eyes?” Sapnap said from behind them, looking at the floor instead of at the portal. The first time Dream had told him the story of his wings, Sapnap had been unconscious the whole trip to the stronghold and during the time they were in there until Dream went to the void. Sapnap had never given his side of the story and George wondered, with the way he refused to look at the portal, and his hesitant mention of the Eyes of Ender, if he had woken up to them removing Dream’s eye.</p>
<p>It wasn’t his place to ask though, he didn’t even think Dream knew how much Sapnap had experienced that day in the stronghold, and if he ever wanted to tell them, they would listen.</p>
<p>“Um, yeah, hold on.” Dream pulled out the faintly glowing orbs, hearing the whispers of the Enderman the pearls had originally come from. George took them from Dream’s shaking hands as he struggled to place the first one and he could tell he was grateful.</p>
<p>Once the last Eye had clicked into place the void opened up in the middle of the portal. Sapnap stepped up next to Dream, eyes glued to the stars of the void instead of the filled frames, and George stepped up to Dream’s other side.</p>
<p>“Whenever you’re ready, take us with you.” Dream grabbed their hands with a slightly tight grip that they both returned in kind. The purple haze of his eye had returned in full force, no doubt feeling the pull of the Goddess waiting on the other side.</p>
<p>They fell into the waiting abyss.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>The End was just as familiar as the last one they had been in. Where End had promised to do the very thing she had now done. What wasn’t a familiar sight was the Ender Dragon perched on the obsidian platform awaiting their arrival. They all pulled out various weapons if the dragon decided to snap at them. <em>No, get on it. It will bring you to me. </em>End’s voice whispered in his mind, and Dream lowered Nightmare.</p>
<p>“End says the dragon is our ride to her. So… don’t attack it.” George and Sapnap were hesitant but as Dream started climbing up the beast, the threat of being left behind outweighed the fear of the dragon. Once they were all settled the dragon lifted into the skies and took off.</p>
<p>The dragon flew for a few minutes and Dream was thankful, understanding the speed the dragon flew outmatched the speed they walked by tenfold.</p>
<p>Finally, the dragon landed, and Dream observed the barren End around him. Suddenly silver flames caught on the lone bush they had settled next to, and they watched in fascination as the End Goddess emerged from the flames.</p>
<p><em>“You took your time getting here,” </em>the Goddess’ smile was sharp, reminding Dream of his own as he had walked into the Community House initially, which felt like a lifetime ago.</p>
<p>“You can blame the rest of the SMP for thinking I was going feral. You weren’t too forgiving in your methods to get me here.” She shrugged dismissively, her empty eyes giving away no emotion.</p>
<p><em>“I won’t apologize for something that worked. Besides, it’s not like I destroyed your memories, I knew you would find a way here.” </em>She pulled out a glowing blue orb from the depths of her person and let it float in his direction before connecting with his head.</p>
<p>A rush of memories came back to him, meeting George, all the SMP members he’d forgotten completely, the things he didn’t even realize he’d forgotten, all came flooding back.</p>
<p><em>“You did not make it easy… to erase people. They are embedded in your soul, every one of them, to a certain extent. I may have removed their names but their true names to you stayed, did they not?” </em>And they had. He’d known each of his treasures' names, the gems he’d associated their very being with, that explained them beyond a person, but as being Dream’s treasure.</p>
<p><em>“And these two… such enigmas. I couldn’t even remove their names from your memory. To lose these two is to lose yourself, there have never been people Gods couldn’t remove from a person. Cherish them.” </em>Dream smiled back at George and Sapnap, who looked baffled at the Goddess’ comment.</p>
<p>His ruby and sapphire, of course, he had known how special they were to him. Perhaps their friendship wasn’t completely perfect, but it was theirs and that made it perfect to Dream.</p>
<p>“Yeah, they are pretty great.”</p>
<p>The Goddess took a step towards him, starlight dusted cheeks illuminated by the endless sky around them. Her hand was encased in silver code, fingers not even visible through the thick casing.</p>
<p><em>“Do you heed the Call of your Goddess, Clay?” </em>The use of his real name threw him for a moment before he realized it was probably required for the Call to work properly.</p>
<p>“I accept.” He clasped his hand with the End Goddess and watched in amazement as the silver code shot out to wrap around the two, binding them together. <em>Don’t fight it and it won’t hurt. </em>He was about to ask what she meant when the overwhelming sensation of raw power filtered through his blood. He spat out of a wad of spit, his throat too thick to swallow, and would have screamed if he had the means when he noticed the silver tint to the spit and the way the power warped through him.</p>
<p>He was on the ground, clutching weakly to the grooves in the End Stone and hoping the sensory overload would pass quickly. George and Sapnap were on either side of him, not touching, no doubt understanding he was in sensory overload currently and wouldn’t be able to take it, but their presence helped nonetheless.</p>
<p>It felt like hours passed before the power settled in his head, but it was probably only minutes amplified by the intensity of being possessed by a God. <em>You did well, better than most who are Called. </em></p>
<p>Dream scoffed at the Goddess’ voice, ignoring the questioning hums from his friends, and instead, he accepted their hands to lift himself from the ground of the End.</p>
<p>“Since the dragon isn’t dead and the portal isn’t open I’ll have to teleport us again. I should be able to get us back to L’manberg now that I’m part-God.” He pretended he hadn’t always been part-God to some extent, but now he was literally sharing a body with a Goddess, making the body half-God.</p>
<p>Silver flames wrapped around his regular blue when accessing his admin powers and he grinned at George and Sapnap to show off slightly. They giggled, glad to have Dream back even for a moment before he had to go off and fight someone for the Goddess.</p>
<p>They waved to the dragon who roared back their goodbye as the three disappeared from the barren land of the End. Right into the chaos of L’manberg.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>“Tubbo! Tommy! What’s going on?” Dream called out as the two boys rushed over to them. They both looked over to Dream with worried eyes and Dream faltered for a moment, wondering what had happened now.</p>
<p>“You got your memories back, great! Now we’ve got a bit of a situation involving…” Tommy stopped talking, words failing at the most important part.</p>
<p>“Involving what, Tommy?” George asked before a shadow eclipsed them from the Prime Path emerging from the Nether portal at the entrance.</p>
<p>“Technoblade got Called.” Oh<em> shit</em>.</p>
<p>“My Goddess demanded a challenge, your Goddess was all too willing to give in once the time was right, so here we are.” Techno’s eyes glowed a bright red, every Nether-blessed feature seemingly amplified with every step Techno took closer to them.</p>
<p>“What’s the challenge for? Was it aimed towards my Goddess or any God?” Dream asked, keeping his distance with the Piglin as Techno twirled the Orphan Obliterator in his arms. Dream clasped Nightmare in retaliation, just in case Techno tried to get the jump on him.</p>
<p>“Funny enough it was aimed towards an action of yours, and your Goddess was all too willing to Call you to make up for it.” Dream faltered at that, the many mistakes he’d made in all his years coming back and making him question which one made him have an angry God after him.</p>
<p>“What did I do?” Perhaps Techno could just tell him instead of making him break focus and wonder himself.</p>
<p>“You saved Wilbur. He was supposed to die that day, and you didn’t let him. You tempted Fate. The balance must be restored.” Of course, the Nether Goddess was known as the Blood God because she was the Goddess of death and balance. By saving Wilbur, Dream had deprived the Goddess of a life and thrown all of the world-registered deaths out of balance, making them practically null and void if Dream could just come in and stop them before they happened.</p>
<p>“All right, I admit to my mistakes. But let’s settle this somewhere else, let’s not get blood on the steps.” Nether was obviously leading Techno's actions at that point, he hadn’t even stopped to consider this was Dream he was going to slaughter.</p>
<p>“Wanna do it in the pits, Dream? Settle this like Gods?” Dream couldn’t let Techno know this was affecting him, End having been quiet since they merged, making him handle this on his own.</p>
<p>“I accept your challenge.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The rest of the SMP had assembled themselves at the railings above the pits. Dream had brought in Nightmare and a bow as a backup, but he knew Techno also had a crossbow on him probably, along with his sword.</p>
<p><em>This is to be settled between the Gods; you understand you’ll be aware of what’s happening, but I have control of your movements. </em>He understood, had known since he accepted the Call it would come to this, he just didn’t know the person he’d be looking across from would be Techno.</p>
<p>Eret gave the countdown for the fight, he was King of the SMP, and Phil and Tubbo were inconsolable at the moment for either of them to give the count. As she called out “Begin!” Dream panicked for a brief moment at the feeling of being a backseat passenger in his own body, watching the Goddess pull out his axe with a fluidity that mortals would never possess.</p>
<p>Techno’s face had gone blank, a look Dream was sure was mirrored on his own face, and the opposing Goddess pulled out the crossbow first. Neither moved for a moment, and Dream wondered how Techno was truly feeling now that his thoughts weren’t influenced by the Blood God.</p>
<p>“Are you just going to stand there, End? Or am I going to have to make the first move?” The smile that spread across Techno’s face was unfamiliar, tainted by the mannerisms of a God. He wished he had put his mask back on, the porcelain stuffed in his inventory. At least it wasn’t abandoned in the ruins of Logstedshire.</p>
<p>“You think you can bait me, Nether? We’ve been here before, and we’ll be here again. I’ll fight when I’m ready, until then either make a move or be patient.” Nether growled and switched weapons mid-swing as End made no move to get Dream out of the way of Techno’s incoming blade.</p>
<p>Had this been her plan all along? To kill Dream when she had him completely at her mercy, to make up for all the dragons Dream had slaughtered? She was—Dream wasn’t even aware he was that fast, bending under the swing of the blade and quickly flipping over to run a short distance away all in a few seconds. It had to have been End’s abilities giving him some form of super speed, had he been this fast in manhunts he never would have been caught.</p>
<p>The Goddesses danced around each other for a while, the spectators of the SMP never quite being off the edge due to the unpredictable nature of the Gods. Niki was trying to calm Wilbur down from where he’d broken down minutes ago, sobbing about how it was all his fault they were in this mess, how he should have just died.</p>
<p>Phil was no better off, with Tommy trying to comfort him and Tubbo at the same time, the elder realizing it was his eldest down in the pits fighting for his life and the fight was over his middle son’s life.</p>
<p>Tubbo was just upset at the events of the day, too overwhelmed to do anything but cry for the older brother he’d grown up with and the boy who he’d come to look up to as an older brother, facing off against each other.</p>
<p>George and Sapnap stayed silent throughout the whole fight, understanding the only outcome these Gods were going to accept was one of them dying. They obviously wanted Dream to live, their third piece, their best friend. But to say they wanted Techno dead was cruel and just not true.</p>
<p>The Gods had taken to taunting each other with every step they took, baiting the other to take the next one. Dream had all but curled up in the corners of his mind, unwilling to be a witness to End killing Techno or to even be there for his own demise.</p>
<p>When End pulled a clever trick, baiting Nether to take a step in the seemingly opposite direction End wanted, End smiled as her quick hands loaded the bow and embedded an arrow in Techno’s arm.</p>
<p>It wasn’t his dominant arm, and it wasn’t even a fatal wound, but it was the first blood drawn by either God. The audience gasped as Nether ripped out the arrow and continued to move in an unpredictable pattern as she wrapped with cloth Techno had stored in his inventory.</p>
<p>Dream curled in on himself further, willing away the bond that had ignited between him and Techno at the drawn blood. He remembered the way killing Tommy the first two times had severed the bond, how he was one of the worst pains he felt, not because it hurt, but because it was rooted in sadness and heartbreak at a broken bond.</p>
<p>He had made sure not to break the newest bond with Tommy, the string had glowed bright, only a hint of blue making Dream think of <em>diamond</em> and how Tommy had always been the diamond of his hoard. It was still strong, despite Dream blowing up their home, but he wondered what bonds killing Techno would break.</p>
<p>Technoblade never dies, and that was true. He had never had a world-registered death during his time as a Sleepy Kingdom prince, and he still had all three lives for the Dream SMP. But being killed while Called was permanent, it took all your lives, even if you were one shy of infinite.</p>
<p>Dream only had one life left, a secret he kept for himself. He’d thought if George and Sapnap knew they wouldn’t let him be so reckless, but in the end, it hadn’t mattered, because in the pits all lives were on the table.</p>
<p>Techno’s bond was the color of lava, with red sprinkled in for contrast. <em>Heliotrope</em>. Of course, Dream would associate him with the bloodstone. It flickered for barely a moment as End landed another arrow in the same arm.</p>
<p>A moment was enough for Dream. He had promised them, all of them, he would protect them. This wasn’t protecting Techno, or Phil, or Wilbur, Tommy, or Tubbo.</p>
<p>Dream knew what he had to do.</p>
<p>“Your time’s up.” Dream told End had he pushed against the barrier of his mind. End briefly stopped circling Nether, questioning what Dream was doing, before End narrowed Dream’s eye and resumed fighting.</p>
<p>“You once told me to protect what’s mine at all costs… here’s me doing that.” The switch was quick and Dream had to adjust to being back in control all too quickly as Nether came swinging at him.</p>
<p><em>You will die, Dream. Let me go back. </em>He ignored her voice and instead focused on the way Nether gripped the sword. She was itching for the fight to be over, and honestly, Dream was too.</p>
<p>Dream turned to look at the crowd watching them for one last time. A heavy feeling in his gut settled as he saw his treasures look worriedly on at the fight. His gaze settled on Sapnap and George as Techno’s blade glinted in his peripheral vision. His first friends, his brightest jewels in the treasure chest.</p>
<p>“Hey Sapnap,” he called out, watching as the boy’s gaze settled on him in concern and anticipation, realizing End was no longer in control of Dream, wondering if he had one final trick up his sleeve to get him out of this mess.</p>
<p>He pulled his mask from his inventory, gave it one more look, at the piece of porcelain Dusk had given him to help cope with the attack. He tossed the mask at George, watching as he fumbled it for a moment before gripping it tightly in his fingers. His eyes widened at the implication of the action, but Dream looked at Sapnap a final time before George could start yelling.</p>
<p>“Bury me at our ship, okay?” The last word was followed by Dream striking his axe into the ground as Techno’s blade sunk into his ribs. He faded away to the flickering red glow of Techno’s eyes fading and the screaming of the crowd.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Dream wondered if the void was also the beginning as he floated through the never-ending sky. He felt like he had been there forever and for mere moments at the same time, time had become an abstract concept the moment he died.</p>
<p>End hadn’t come to the void with him, his connection to her severed with his death, with no easy way for her to reach him he was left to float alone until the void consumed his being.</p>
<p>“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, Green Boy.” A voice spoke from somewhere in the space around him, he turned until he was face to face with an unfamiliar person. “Oh, come on, you remember me.” The guy was wearing an oversized blue hoodie but he brushed his hair back with his hands to bring Dream’s attention to the ram horns on his head.</p>
<p>“Schlatt. You’re the last person I expected to see.” The ram hybrid grinned, none of the usual malice found on his face.</p>
<p>“Just how many dead people do you know?” Good point, Dream figured.</p>
<p>“So, do we just keep each other company until one of us… vanishes?” Schlatt grinned again, shaking his head.</p>
<p>“For the Chosen who’s actually been able to access this place before you think you’d understand why you’re here. Oh, well. If you want to think of it that way, you can.”</p>
<p>“That doesn’t make any sense, I’ve been here when End needs to reach me directly or I need to escape from major harm. But I died, there’s no End here and there’s no going back after the damage is fixed.”</p>
<p>“Don’t shoot the messenger, I know as much as you do. Listen, Dream, I know we weren’t friends when I was alive. I kinda tried to take over your world, and I spiraled pretty bad. So, I wanted to say I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>That hadn’t been something Dream was expecting, even after seeing Schlatt. “It’s okay. I haven’t exactly been running my world at a hundred percent either.” They drifted in silence for a moment. “Maybe it’s a curse of leaders. Wilbur went insane. You died. I died. Let’s hope Tubbo has some better luck besides being the one who exiled his best friend and nearly started another war.”</p>
<p>Schlatt’s stoic face grew sad at the mention of Tubbo. “He’s okay, right? Not messed up too badly from… me?”</p>
<p>“Tubbo? Yeah, he’s fine. I mean, being president is stressful and then I kind of… had him exile Tommy so he didn’t have a stable friendship for a while. So really if anyone messed him up it would be me.”</p>
<p>“I made a lot of mistakes beyond your SMP, but letting Tubbo be raised by Phil… be raised the way he was, I wouldn’t change it.” Dream looked over at Schlatt in surprise, wondering how he hadn’t seen it earlier. They both had horns, Tubbo even had his nose. He’d even remembered seeing the familial bond between them one day and just brushing it off as some distant relative they wouldn’t even be aware of.</p>
<p>“Does he know?” Schlatt shook his head.</p>
<p>“It’s better he doesn’t. I didn’t even really put it together until after I died, you know when all the alcohol was out of my system for good. But he hung around Wilbur and Tommy too much for it not to be him. I’d rather we keep this between us, I didn’t exactly tell Phil either before I dropped him off on the steps of the castle.”</p>
<p>“Considering we’re both here for the long haul I think that’s an easy promise,” Schlatt smirked but didn’t comment on what Dream had said.</p>
<p>“I don’t even know that Wilbur remembers me. He was my best friend but we were teens when I left. And I went by Jonathan. His reactions towards me are valid either way, I dropped off the face of the world without telling them bye, and then the next time I do see him I take over his country and ban him. Some friend I am.”</p>
<p>“Wilbur would forgive you, even now, if he could. He doesn’t have it in his heart to hate forever.” He thought of how Wilbur had drifted through life since he blew up L’manberg. Thinking it was easier to forget what he had done than own up to his past. Dream had owned up to his mistakes, understood that he was a bad person, to a certain extent.</p>
<p>Perhaps that’s why he was drifting with Schlatt, they were both bad people because of the mistakes they’d made in life but in death they were free.</p>
<p><em>There you are. </em>Dream almost flipped over at the sudden way he jerked up to meet the End Goddess’ face. Schlatt was still drifting impassively, smiling in the Goddess’ direction.</p>
<p>“I’m surprised you came to find me. After the stunt, I pulled in the pits.” Dream grinned at his former Goddess, glad he would get to formally say goodbye to her.</p>
<p><em>You gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect your hoard. I’m proud of you. </em>He had protected them, hadn’t he. In his own way.</p>
<p><em>I didn’t come sooner because your friends needed more time. The ruby isn’t that good at giving directions to other worlds. </em>Other worlds? Had they evacuated when he died?</p>
<p>“A world doesn’t die with an admin. Phil or Techno could have taken the mantle, why did they leave?” Schlatt floated behind him, hands resting on his shoulders as the panic rose in his voice.</p>
<p><em>I believe you gave him one final request. </em>That’s right, he’d told Sapnap to bury him at their ship, at the place where he’d begun collecting his treasures. <em>Of course, they made a detour on the way that required my presence. </em></p>
<p>Oh, Gods. “They stopped at my mother’s? He could only picture the devastating scene that played out. Sapnap and George were probably inconsolable, barreling into the embrace his mother would have provided before Phil came in behind them with Dream’s body in his arms. At that point, it would be up to his friends to keep his mother from breaking into pieces as she collapsed, faced with the fact her eldest son was dead.</p>
<p>He tried not to think of Drista and Dusk being there to witness the scene, but if they were Dream hoped Rem had guided them away before they could realize what was happening. They could grieve him later when he wasn’t covered in his own blood and still warm.</p>
<p>
  <em>You have quite the hoard, Dream. One of the largest and strongest I’ve ever encountered with one of my Chosen. You risked severing their ties to you and threatening to destroy the SMP itself. That world is forged on your treasures, it’s your nest where you can protect them. But what’s treasure without a dragon to guard it?</em>
</p>
<p>“I destroyed my world, their home when I died?” The Goddess shook her head and Dream went to argue that she had just said the world would break when he died.</p>
<p>Schlatt clamped a hand over his mouth and shook Dream’s head slightly with a grin. “Just listen, you impatient brat.”</p>
<p>
  <em>The Dream SMP will die with you… keep that in mind for when you go back. </em>
</p>
<p>“WHAT?! I can’t go back, I’m dea—”</p>
<p>“If you say you’re dead one more time while our great Goddess here is telling you otherwise I’m going to come back and haunt you so I can strangle you to death.” Dream stopped arguing, choosing instead to look between End and Schlatt with wide eyes.</p>
<p>“How is this possible?” He whispered out at last. The Goddess smiled, the starlight on her cheeks brightening with the question.</p>
<p><em>Your sister is quite the healer, and Notch owed me a favor from a few centuries ago. </em>Drista, his little sister, had kept him from alive? <em>I kept you alive as long as I could while she worked, but I brought you here like I did all those years ago so you wouldn’t suffer. You’ll have to go back soon, or else your mind will be locked in the void. </em></p>
<p>All this time in the void with Schlatt and End had just been biding him time to stay alive for his family, for his friends… no, they were his family too.</p>
<p><em>Are you ready to go back, Dream? </em>He turned to the Goddess with a set look of determination on his face. He gave a curt nod that she returned with a smile.</p>
<p>“Try not to get back here too fast, okay Dream?” Schlatt told him as Dream began to fade from the void. He waved mockingly as Dream rolled his eyes, the transfer back to the land of the living having already stolen his voice.</p>
<p><em>I’ll be with you every step of the way. </em>He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, embracing the numbing feeling spreading through him before he was just Gone.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>“Oh, my Gods! You’re alive!” A heavy weight all but crushed Dream before he even had a chance to properly open his eyes. Two heavy weights, actually.</p>
<p>He blinked a few times, adjusting to the sharp brightness, a stark contrast to the perma night void. He recognized the white ribbon and thick glasses sitting atop black and brown hair respectively and he breathed in a deep sigh of relief. George and Sap.</p>
<p>“—so worried. Techno was beside himself when it happened. You just dropped, didn’t even flinch, Gods, it was scary.” He tried to listen to George as the man recounted what had happened beyond the pits, putting together the words even as the man speaking remained buried in Dream’s hoodie. “End pretty much explained you were dying and told us we had to bring you to a healer. She’s pretty scary like she was really frazzled trying to maintain your connection so you wouldn’t die.” George took a shuddering breath and Dream held him closer, giving him a moment to compose himself.</p>
<p>“Sapnap told Phil to bring you here, because Drista is one of Notch’s Chosen, so she’s blessed with healing abilities. He managed to get us pretty close to the village, but the whole SMP is here, and that immediately sparked panic in your little village. Your mom was trying to be as calm as possible but I think she was relieved when Drista all but choked you on a Notch apple and was able to stop the internal bleeding.” He wheezed slightly at the thought of his sister shoving an apple down his throat.</p>
<p><em>“You’re really going to let a sword kill you for good? Can’t you be cool for once in your life?” </em>He could almost hear the way she insulted him through her own panic at having his life in her hands.</p>
<p>“But you’re okay, you’re alive. And we don’t plan on letting you die for a long, <em>long</em> time Dream,” George looked up at him for the first time, his eyes meeting Dream’s eye, which had returned to its normal green. “Isn’t that right, Sapnap?” The other boy gave no indication he’d even heard George’s question but both of them turned their attention to the youngest. “Sapnap?”</p>
<p>“This is the second time I’ve been in this room wondering if this would be the last time I saw you alive.” A pained sound, like Sapnap, had tried to stop himself from crying out at the thought, was muffled in Dream’s hoodie. “And I really thought it would be for good this time. But here you are, alive… I—I don’t know what I would have done if you’d died.” Dream ran a hand through Sapnap’s hair, twirling the extra pieces of the bandana that hung down between his fingers.</p>
<p>“You would have lived, for me.” Sapnap raised his head to look at Dream, eyes puffy and nearly swollen shut from all the crying he’d done. “And you would have lived for George, and Karl, and Quackity. And everyone else on the SMP because I couldn’t.”</p>
<p>“I’m so happy you’re alive.” Dream laughed, tugging Sapnap up and wrapping him in a proper hug, George backing up so he could hug Sapnap from behind and box the younger between the two of them.</p>
<p>“Now, I’m sure everyone else would appreciate knowing you’re alive. As much as we want, we can’t hog you all for ourselves.” George rose from the bed, probably intending to call out to the people in the house that he was awake, but Dream knew the small room couldn’t handle that chaos.</p>
<p>He swung his legs over the bed and stood up, albeit a bit too quickly given the resulting head-rush, but he moved past that and advanced so he could drape himself over George and be a nuisance.</p>
<p>“Do you think we’d make it to the living room without someone seeing me?” He faux-whispered to Sapnap who grinned and hopped up from the bed quickly to get into “spy-mode.”</p>
<p>“I’ll be the lookout.” He brandished a finger gun and slowly opened the door, both ignoring how George fondly rolled his eyes at the two and stepped into the hallway.</p>
<p>The house was surprisingly quiet, giving Dream the impression that everyone might be asleep, he hadn’t exactly looked to see if it was the middle of the night when he woke up. That thought was quickly abandoned when they reached the living room/kitchen area and came face to face with everyone.</p>
<p>No one noticed the three in the door straight away, all absorbed in their own activities, but of course, “Oh hi, Dream,” it would be Tommy that spotted him and ensured chaos would start.</p>
<p>He was immediately swarmed, practically drowned in the middle of a pile of people trying to make sure he wasn’t still dying. He could hear his mom and Rem asking why he was out of bed but he pretended like he didn’t hear the question and kept confirming his well-being to everyone.</p>
<p>Sam, Punz, Puffy, Purpled, and Ranboo had been a welcome surprise. Dream had been aware that the bonds he had with everyone tried to sever when he almost kicked the bucket, but he hadn’t been aware of how the severing of the bonds had affected the parties involved. Dream didn’t think Tommy had felt anything when their bond had broken in the past, but perhaps the kid just didn’t tell anyone about it.</p>
<p>The five latecomers had been distraught to learn Dream was in critical condition when Phil went to retrieve them from the SMP after receiving multiple messages from all members. They hadn’t been present in the world when everything went down, and Dream was thankful they hadn’t been, feeling terrible enough so many others had witnessed what happened.</p>
<p>He hugged Drista last, squeezing her hard enough for her to protest about her ribs breaking and flapping her wings around in an attempt to break away. Dream had just laughed and shaken her around before finally relinquishing his hold and settling his elbow on her shoulder, ignoring her fond scowl.</p>
<p>They stayed in his old Westerly village for a few days at his mother’s insistence. And with Sapnap’s permission, they brought the whole SMP on a day trip to their ship, letting them walk around the rotting boards and laughing their asses off when Tubbo told Fundy to walk the plank and it broke under the fox’s feet.</p>
<p>Sapnap didn’t take the opportunity to visit his family, looking in the distance where the castle laid and glaring like the king would drop dead at that moment from a heart attack. They weren’t that lucky, never had been.</p>
<p>Neither noticed the looks the rest of the SMP shared behind the two boys, silently formulating a plan.</p>
<p>The next morning Dream and Sapnap were the first awake, or so they thought. Finding no one else in the house beyond his family Dream immediately panicked and prepared to go searching for them when they heard laughter outside approaching the house.</p>
<p>They ran outside to see all of their friends covered in soot like they had watched TNT go off for hours and just sat there collecting the stuff on their clothes. George ran up to the two and handed them a picture with a bright grin, waiting for their reactions.</p>
<p>“What the fu—” Bad cut in sharply reminding him to watch his language as he and Sapnap looked back down to the picture. The castle had been blown up, Techno and Wilbur posing in the photo, looking to all the world like they hadn’t just incriminated themselves.</p>
<p>“You blew up the castle?” Sapnap asked, a smile coming up on his face as a laugh bubbled in his throat. “That’s freaking genius!”</p>
<p>Dream smiled too, looking at his family who had taken something from the man who had taken so much from him at such a young age. He looked at the picture again, squinting at the blue dye staining the side of the wall, on the small piece still standing. <em>Soot &amp; Blade. </em></p>
<p>“And you literally told them who did it too. You’re lucky those guards are as dumb as cobblestone because otherwise, they’d be able to put together the fact you’re both Sleepy Kingdom princes.”</p>
<p>“We gave up our titles when we joined the SMP, officially. And no one knows where we all ran off to so we’d just be able to lead them on a wild goose chase for our own amusement.” Wilbur grinned, the soot moving to resettle in new lines where he smiled.</p>
<p>“All right, we’re going to have to hose you off before you come in. If you track that stuff in the house my mom might kill you herself before you can commence the goose chase of the century.”</p>
<p>That was all the warning he gave them as the water was blasted in their faces, full power.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Life on the SMP was different now. Not so much that it was uncomfortable and unrecognizable, although people being civil towards each other was a pretty funny sight. Dream had done some configurations to the world, allowing one small area near L’manberg to snow so Phil and Techno could move in and be closer to everyone, including their family.</p>
<p>Tubbo had stepped down as president of L’manberg, saying that he wanted the chance to enjoy being a teenager with his best friend, Dream couldn’t fault him for that. Wilbur took back the presidency in a landslide, Quackity only running against him so he could have someone to run against. Wilbur took Dream on as his Vice President, seeing as he knew the inner workings of the world the best, and the people in the world.</p>
<p>George and Sapnap built their house, choosing to make them neighbors with Karl and Quackity and actually having one of their walls be shared by the two houses. They all had separate rooms but after long days where Dream would do his job as admin and VP, he’d often be dragged to bed to be cuddled by both George and Sapnap.</p>
<p>Eret stayed King of the SMP, seeing as it was obviously beneficial for them. They let Fundy and Ranboo have their own rooms in the castle for when walking back to their homes at night seemed like too much.</p>
<p>The world settled with the people, Dream finding the stability he had needed to keep the world functioning, and it flourished.</p>
<p>A month after he was Called Dream took a day off from his duties. He disappeared from L’manberg and despite checking around no one seemed to know where he had gone. It was after Tommy found out Dream was missing did he suggest a possible place he’d go to.</p>
<p>Logstedshire was still in ruins, even worse off since Tommy had left before Dream was Called. The Goddess had obviously done her own number on the place.</p>
<p>Most of the SMP members took a moment to look around at the land where Tommy had been exiled, where Dream had followed willingly. “Why would Dream come back here?” Niki asked.</p>
<p>“Because he didn’t destroy everything,” Tommy responded as he led them down the path to the beach where the failure party had taken place. Tommy hadn’t ever wanted to see the beach again after that day, but he knew Dream often left for mining in a boat and dumped his findings in chests by the shore.</p>
<p>He’d seen Dream pause as he went to place a diamond in a chest one day. The mask hadn’t given anything away but Tommy had remembered how Dream pulled out a crafting table and made a new chest. He placed the diamond inside, tilted his head, and quickly locked it with an admin ability.</p>
<p>They found Dream sitting on top of the chest when they came over the slight hill separating the beach from dirt land. His chin was resting on his hand, legs crossed on top of the chest, and his eyes were closed. Tommy wondered if he was talking to the End Goddess or if this was some poor attempt at meditation.</p>
<p>No one moved for a few moments before Dream opened his eye and blinked up to look at them with a smirk. “You are all very loud.” A few groaned at the fact Dream had known they were there the whole time. “But I’m glad you’re here, makes for a shorter trip, I guess.”</p>
<p>He stood from the chest and stretched, grinning at the group and beckoning them forward. The table Tommy had set up so long ago had been left to wet rot and was giving off a slight smell. He ignored it in favor of approaching Dream.</p>
<p>The admin had a bright smile on his face, giddy, and high of joy. It was strange to see him like this, Tommy thought. Although, Dream had been getting better ever since the Call, with the support of everyone.</p>
<p>“There’s some stuff I don’t remember from being Called before I went to the End, so I’m not sure I was ever out of my mind enough to say it, but the End Goddess likes to refer to you all as my hoard. I call you all my treasures, things I can guard and protect, and believe me I know I did a shitty job of that for a while. But I think I’m getting better, and I wanted you all to see yourselves how I see you.” Dream broke the admin lock on the chest behind him and began pulling out bright gems.</p>
<p>“Emerald for Wilbur,” the gem was cut with precision, one that Dream had obviously mined with care. “Heliotrope for Techno,” the bloodstone for the Blood God’s Chosen, very fitting. “Amethyst for Tubbo,” the boy eagerly took the purple gem from Dream. “Amber for Fundy,” the fox’s ears perked up at the stone placed in his hands. “Jade for Niki,” she blushed as she was handed the green gem, Wilbur having the audacity to clink theirs together like calling a toast. “Opal for Phil,” the sparkles of color glinting through the white made Phil think of fresh snow in the early morning. “Moonstone for Bad,” the demon hugged Dream as he accepted the gift. “Lapis for Skeppy,” the blue on the man’s cheeks darkened as he accepted the stone. “Pearl for Eret,” Tommy could only imagine the trouble Dream had gone through to get that one, traveling the bottoms of the ocean and prying open clams, Eret hugged Dream tight as the pearl was placed in his hands.</p>
<p>Dream took a moment to look back in the chest, observing who all he still had his literal treasure for. “Did you guys realize there were this many of you?” They all laughed as Dream pulled out another blue gem and tossed it up in the air. “It really didn’t seem like this many when I was collecting, but I’ve been told I collect subconsciously so that might explain some things.”</p>
<p>“Anyways, Topaz for Quackity,” Tommy thought for a moment Quackity would come back with some smart quip, but all he gave Dream was a shaky smile as he hugged the gem close. “Spinel for Karl,” the ruby pink color glinted off the sharp edges of the gem as Karl threw himself at Dream for a hug. “Aquamarine for Sam,” the creeper hybrid ruffled Dream’s hair as he took the gem. “Kunzite for Punz,” the pale pink of the gem a perfect reflection of the blush rising to Punz’s face as he hugged Dream. “Morganite for Puffy,” the orange-pink complementing the sheep hybrid’s complexion. “Tanzanite for Purpled,” the purple of the gem matching the hoodie the boy was wearing almost perfectly. “Onyx for Ranboo,” the dual colors in the stone matching the enderman hybrid’s skin.</p>
<p>Dream paused as he reached the final three gems in the chest, smiling slightly as he pulled out the diamond Tommy had seen so long ago.</p>
<p>“You know, Tommy, this was the first gem I put in this chest, kinda what inspired me to want to do this. You’re truly a diamond in the rough, Tommy. Taking things life… and I… throw at you, and persevering through it.” The gem was really pretty, one of the prettiest diamonds Tommy had probably seen in the world or his old one. It had a blue tint to it that reflected well against the ocean when he held it up just right.</p>
<p>“Dream, I know we’ve had our differences, but since we both plan to be here for the long haul I think we can agree the past is in the past and whatever happened can be forgiven in favor of a better tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” he held out his hand for Tommy to shake, the kid shaking it with exaggerated force making the admin roll his eyes at his antics.</p>
<p>Dream turned to Sapnap and George with a grin. A ruby and sapphire were held out in separate hands for each of them. “You guys are my red and blue, my ruby and sapphire. You balance me and make me complete.” Dream turned to look at all of his treasures, holding the literal embodiment of how Dream saw them. “You all complete me.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much if you've made it to the end of the story. I started this just as a creative outlet and it turned in to something I was proud of writing. I might come back to this universe, if I do I'll add it to a series so you guys can find them! Comments and kudos are always appreciated, let me know if I've missed anything in the tags, much love &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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